On the 7th November, The Noble Sage will be opening its seventh and strongest show to date - 'Sri Lankan Contemporaries'. The large-scale exhibition will spotlight the stunning paintings of seven artists from the island known to many as 'the teardrop of India'. Renowned international artists, Jagath Ravindra, Anoma, Jagath Weerasinghe and Iromie Wijewardena, are joined by three younger names with a bright future ahead of them: Sameera Kalupahana and Sanjaya Bandara Senavirathna. Exhibition prices range from £400 to £2500.

A wide variety of work can be seen in the exhibition but a strong trend is toward semi-abstraction and a bright, joyously colourful palette. Perhaps no better example can be found than the almost graphical work of Sudath Abeysekara. In his painting 'The Crow and…' II (2006), Abeysekara pits blood-reds against heated yellows and oranges to create a passionate display of artistic expression. Black paint, applied in sweeping swathes, delineate the tussle of two or more humans. Meanwhile a crow, the artist's constant motif, stands aside watching, solitary and still. Whereas in Sri Lanka one gets used to seeing the frantic nature of the bird from our high human pedestal, here the tables are turned - it is us that is in turmoil.

Up and coming artist, Sanjaya Bandara Senavirathna, paints a very different picture. To this young face on the Colombo art scene, the changing world around him is an endless bombardment on his senses. In 'Today' I (2006), he describes the massive expansion of the garment industry in Sri Lanka in the same breath as his feelings of despair over the violence in his country: "The dark parts describe the war. The rest is commercialism. Tags and labels scattered. Amongst this you can see the trunk of an elephant - the elephant is quickly becoming extinct you see…" The artist doesn't know what to handle first: the diminishing elephants or the proliferation of billboards and advertising. He echoes our own sense of bewilderment and frustration at today's changing times.

The exhibition also features the important political work of Jagath Weerasinghe, an established painter and lecturer considered by many to be the leader of the underground art movement in Sri Lanka. In his seminal work, 'Snakes and Mics' (2005), the artist vehemently portrays his disappointment at the intertwining of Buddhism and politics in contemporary Sri Lanka. The saffron colour of the monk's robes is converted by the artist into a political, deadly colour. Snakes become symbols of the corrupt, the microphones they hiss into emblematic of mass manipulation whether through TV, political rally, radio or newspaper. Weerasinghe is not shy about voicing his opinion through his art.

"Being Sri Lankan myself, I am so proud to have put together such an exciting show. Though all the artists are highly skilled painters, my personal favourite has to be Sameera Kalupahana. His accomplished, highly finished still life oil paintings are reminiscent of Georgio Morandi and Jean Baptiste Chardin though his subject matter is very Sri Lankan: coconut shells and kitchen tools, water pots and mangoes. It transports me to his small village, Beruwala, in the most elegant way possible" says Director of 'The Noble Sage', Jana Manuelpillai.

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