| Sujith Rathnayake’s exhibition of paintings titled ‘Here and There’ opened on May 13 at the Alliance Française auditorium and will continue till June 5.
Sujith grew up with art, his father being an artist but his life changed irrevocably with the tsunami. Caught up in the killer wave and the destruction in its wake at Tangalle, he says what followed for him was a feeling of immense isolation. “It seemed as if the sky, the earth and the moon were the only witnesses of my plight. Time was killing all my feelings.”
He has called his current exhibition “Here and There” because it represents art works that he did at different moments of his life. “These are 24 art works that are special to me, selected among thousands of works that I have created since 1996. They are so different from each another but I believe that they have a certain “Montage Harmony” in them.”
“This exhibition doesn’t present art works that were painted to create a new trend or even to be exhibited,” he adds. “My signature and the date are not mentioned on some of these paintings. In some of the 1996 works my signature is different. I can only develop these styles but I cannot reproduce because reproducing art is a business where the artistic value is lost,” he elaborates.
“Up until now no one has been able to have an influence on my art,” he says, proud of his individuality. | 
E-mail