Art that is at once both meditation and resistance
In her latest exhibition at Colombo’s Saskia Fernando Gallery, multidisciplinary artist Shaanea Mendis invites viewers into an intimate showcase of watercolours and sculptural installations. ‘Remember to Breathe’ is a deeply personal meditation on grief, healing, and renewal.
On view from August 29 to October 2, the exhibit draws on the quiet, cyclical process of healing, reflecting the artist’s journey of transformation and resilience.
Resilient City: Shaanea’s bond with art began at home
Shaanea’s bond with art began at home. Her mother, a painter herself, introduced her to watercolour and nurtured her eye. As a child, Shaanea often accompanied her to Kala Pola, Colombo’s annual art fair, lingering at the stalls of family friends Kushan and Mandalika Manjusri and Jagath Weerasinghe. The home of L.T.P. Manjusri’s children, encounters with senior artists, and afternoons spent among canvases formed her earliest classroom.
She remembers sitting for a portrait by Stanley Abeysinghe at age four. More than the likeness, it was his technique that stayed with her: “He would go straight into a wash without a pencil drawing. That’s how I work now.” In contrast, Manjusri’s pointillist brushwork offered a different rhythm – delicate, patient, meditative.
Shaanea Mendis with Saskia Fernando
Her formal training deepened these foundations. Between 1998 and 2003, she studied under Nadine David, whose lineage reaches back through David Paynter to Augustus John. At Ladies’ College, Shyamala Pinto Jayawardene guided her London A/Ls in art. Later, Jagath Weerasinghe mentored her through the Theertha Artist Collective’s Art History Certificate course. Each encounter added to her vocabulary, connecting her to traditions while encouraging her own voice.
Her early works explored figurative and still-life forms before gradually turning outward – and inward – to organic structures. Living in Colombo, Mumbai, Singapore, and now Copenhagen, exposed her to shifting skylines and cultures, layering her artistic language with both urban density and natural quiet. “These places shaped me,” she reflects. “They gave my work both intimacy and expansiveness.”
This evolution culminated in her signature “cellscapes”: intricate watercolours inspired by biological forms, from skin to leaves to microscopic slides. Saturated greens, pinks, and yellows blur unpredictably across paper, balanced with flecks of gold leaf.
At Ladies’ College, she gravitated naturally toward painting and even sold her first piece at the school’s centenary art exhibition. Later, a chance interview with representatives from Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts in Singapore set her on a formal path, earning her a BFA (Hons) with the support of a tuition grant.
Drawing in the air
While her paintings remain central, ‘Remember to Breathe’ also introduces a striking installation. ‘I am a Work in Progress’ consists of fibrous sculptural forms – strands of jute, wool, and knitted fibres, suspended in space like neural networks or tangled roots.
The technique carries layers of meaning. “My children taught me finger knitting in Denmark. It reminded me of my grandmother, who tried to teach me knitting when I was younger but I never grasped it then. It’s come full circle: from my grandmother to my children, and now back to me.” This meditative weaving becomes both metaphor and method: a slow, grounding process in a world that rarely slows down. The installation shifts depending on its environment – shadows play across walls, the fibres stretch and adapt – making it as much about impermanence as it is about resilience.
Her “cellscapes,” inspired by the textures of skin, veins, and leaves, embody this philosophy. They appear dense yet expansive, symbolic of fragility and resilience. Through saturated watercolours -greens, yellows, pinks that blur and bloom unpredictably -she embraces both control and surrender. Flecks of gold leaf punctuate her works, referencing systems of consumerism and environmental degradation, yet offering glimmers of spiritual transcendence.
Resistance and healing
For Shaanea, art is at once meditation and resistance. Her brighter palettes emerge as acts of defiance, an intentional choice to seek renewal and depict environments that thrive despite adversity. Her belief in art as activism became visible during the 2022 Aragalaya, when her digital work ‘The Helmet Man’ went viral as a symbol of resistance. While she sees art as a powerful tool to raise voices and shift perspectives, she emphasizes the responsibility artists carry in shaping dialogue.
‘Remember to Breathe’ is her sixth solo exhibit, following shows at Barefoot Gallery, Lionel Wendt, the Harold Pieris Gallery, and the Bombay Art Society. Still, she considers this exhibition a pivotal milestone, given the gallery’s role in championing contemporary Sri Lankan art and creating international platforms for its artists. “SFG provides opportunities for emerging and mid-career artists that are unparalleled.”
She acknowledges that different people see different things in her work – neural paths, roots, feathers, even cloud formations. For her, that openness is part of the magic. “That’s how art works too; it gives space for personal connection.”
Her advice to emerging artists is rooted in her own path: to allow grief, memory, or social concerns to become part of the process rather than obstacles, and to embrace art as both personal healing and collective conversation.
‘Remember to Breathe’ is on view at Saskia Fernando Gallery, 41 Horton Place, Colombo 07, until October 2, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
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