On View
‘Encounters’
11 February 202219 March 2023

Does a chance encounter between one thing and another alter how something familiar or commonplace is otherwise seen? Can two artworks placed side by side reveal something new about each of them?
This exhibition is structured as a sequence of changing displays which bring together six encounters between artworks from the 1950s to the present.
Each display revolves around and responds to a specially chosen painting drawn from the John Keells Holdings or the George Keyt Foundation art collections. The six encounters propose playful and at times contentious comparisons between the familiar and unexpected.
Visitors are invited to return to Encounters over the course of three rotations:
Rotation 1
11 February–22 May 2022
Abdul Halik Azeez
Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau
Aubrey Collette
Martin Wickramasinghe
Permanent Bureau of Afro-Asian Writers
Senaka Senanayake
George Keyt
Pradeep Thalawatta
Asai Rasiah
George Keyt
Richard Gabriel
Susiman Nirmalavasan
Rotation 2
22 June–13 November 2022
Abdul Halik Azeez
Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau
Aubrey Collette
Martin Wickramasinghe
Permanent Bureau of Afro-Asian Writers
Senaka Senanayake
Firi Rahman
Gamini Ratnavira
Ismeth Raheem
Laki Senanayake
Rotation 3
8 December 2022–19 March 2023
Abdul Halik Azeez
Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau
Aubrey Collette
Martin Wickramasinghe
Permanent Bureau of Afro-Asian Writers
Senaka Senanayake
A. Mark
George Keyt
Nelun Harasgama
George Keyt
Janani Cooray
Encounters is curated by Sharmini Pereira, Chief Curator and Sandev Handy, Assistant Curator.
Exhibition and Graphic Design by Studio M: Emile Molin with Jonathan Edward assisted by Ruth Perera and Keshini Wewegama.
Translations by Kaumadi Jayaweera, Kirubalini Stephen, Miriam Naveendran, Phusathi Liyanaarachchi, Saambavi Sivaji, and Shiyalni Janarthanan.
We would like to thank all the artists, funders, and lenders for their generous support in making this exhibition possible.
Additional thanks to:
Afzal Farook
Anoja De J Seneviratne
Aravinda Dharmathilaka
C. Anjalendran
David Janszé Jr.
Dilko Samaranayake
Emile Molin
Jennifer Senanayake
Jithain Hathiramani
Jonathan Edward
Murfad Shariff
Niroshi Jayasekera
Padma Bandaranayake
Pathmanesan Prasanth
Prof. Hala Halim
Prof. Tariq Mehmood Ali
Prof. T. Sanathanan
Prof. Virinder S. Kalra
Rasika Silva
Ruvini Ekanayake and team at Crescat Boulevard
Shawnerine Abraham
Shayari de Silva
Stefan Winkler
Thisath Thoradeniya
Udaya Hewawasam
‘Encounters’ is generously supported by
Nations Trust Bank
Additional support provided by
Asian Hotels and Properties PLC
European Union
Fairfirst Insurance
Foundation for Arts Initiatives
Goethe Institut Sri Lanka
John Keells Foundation
MICD Associates
Studio M – CMB (Pvt) Ltd
‘one hundred thousand small tales’
19 December 201916 August 2020

In 2003, Cheran, a leading contemporary Tamil poet, published a poem where he described how a
“… bridge, strengthened by its burden
of a hundred thousand tales
collapses within a single tear.”
This exhibition draws its title, and curatorial impetus, from the exercise of imagining how the poem’s burden of countless tales might be conceived as an exhibition. To this end, it views the collapse of a physical structure as a tipping point that gives rise to a body of knowledge, of excessive and epic proportions, and how this excess might be displayed, arranged, catalogued and understood. From afar, this exhibition addresses the task of recording an art history in terms of an artistic output that bore witness to many narratives, episodes, and accounts of what has come to pass in Sri Lanka during its recent history. Up close, it recognises the strength of Sri Lanka’s artistic communities across several generations and the artworks that they have given form to, as the material manifestation of the poem’s ‘hundred thousand tales’. In doing so, the exhibition positions each artwork as a unique tale, seeing the potential each one possesses to tell or retell a story, depart from a story, or to remain silent. This exhibition is indebted to the countless exhibitions that have taken place over previous decades, and the efforts of many artists, curators, collectives, writers, collectors and organisations, as well as those to come.
This exhibition was originally commissioned by the Dhaka Art Summit and was first shown at the Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka from 2–10 February 2018
We would like to thank all the artists and lenders for their
generous support in making this exhibition possible.
Major Benefactors:
AOD Colombo (Pvt) Ltd
John Keells Foundation
MICD Associates
This exhibition would not have been possible without the immense generosity of:
ApiHappi
AzkoNobel
Colombo Innovation Tower
Elephant House
Fairfirst Insurance Limited
Geoffrey Bawa Trust
Gunaratne Offset (Pvt) Ltd
Idea Hub (Pvt) Ltd
M3Force Photonics (Pvt) Ltd
Samdani Art Foundation
True Value Green Products (Pvt) Ltd
VK Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd
Wijeya Newspapers
Wineworld (Pvt) Ltd
Gallery 1
Home, Land, Survey, Country

3GPS Drawing: Jaffna to Delft, 9.30 am to 10.30 am, Boat, 10 Feb 2015 (2015)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)

4GPS Drawing: Jaffna Hostel (Kalviyankadu) to Ramanathan Academy (Maruthanarmadam), Three-wheeler, 12 km, 26 April 2012 (2012)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)

5GPS Drawings, England 2011, Oxford to Paddington, Train, 1.01 pm to 2 pm, 2011 (2011)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)

7GPS Drawing: Kudirimale to Wilpattu National Park Gate, 53km, 1.40 pm to 5.40 pm, Jeep, 7 October 2017 (2017)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)

8GPS Drawing: Fuengirola to Córdoba, 8.30 am to 11.18 am, Bus, 9 August 2017 (2017)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)

9GPS Drawing: Babaragasthalawa to Kumana campsite, 10 km, 1.15 hr, Jeep Toyota 4×4, June 2011 (2011)
Muhanned Cader (b. 1966)

16If You Boycott the Elections the Penalty Is Death, PRRA, Peoples Revolutionary Red Army, Galle (1989)
Stephen Champion (b. 1959)

17Corridors of Power: Drawing and Modelling Sri Lanka’s Tryst with Democracy (2015)
Channa Daswatte (b. 1965), Sanjana Hattotuwa (b. 1977), Asanga Welikala (b. 1976)
Gallery 2
Gaze, Self, Portrait
Gallery 3
Landscape / Landscapes, Territory
Gallery 4
Loss, Belief, Mourning
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