Founded in 2009, Saskia Fernando Gallery presents an extensive range of exhibitions and events each year, as well as high-calibre collaborations with platforms, curators, and publications. Throughout all its programming, the gallery focuses on exposing Sri Lankan contemporary art to an international audience, as well as cultivating the local art scene.
Read MoreA curator for both Saskia Fernando Gallery and Paradise Road Galleries, eponymous founder Saskia Fernando was named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs by Echelon Business Magazine in 2014. Deeply embedded in the Sri Lankan art community, Fernando has founded a number of platforms for different local communities, amongst other ventures.
Saskia Fernando Gallery Artists
Representing 15 established and emerging artists with ties to Sri Lanka—either from Sri Lanka or working in Sri Lanka— Saskia Fernando Gallery maintains a lineup of both conceptually and formally rigorous practices, with artists working across a range of media including painting, sculpture, and photography.
An assortment of painting practices particularly feature on Saskia Fernando Gallery’s roster. Some of these painters, such as Hashan Cooray and Saskia Pintelon, focus their attention on portraiture. Others—including Priyantha Udagedara, Nuwan Nalaka, and Ruwan Prasanna—root their approach in abstraction.
Other artists whose fascinating practices regularly feature at Saskia Fernando Gallery include Hanusha Somasunderam, whose multidisciplinary artworks revolve around the struggles of Sri Lankan tea estate workers; Abdul Halik Azeez, whose photojournalism focuses on the lives of underprivileged populations; and Muvindu Binoy, who contrasts traditional ways of being with contemporary technological norms.
Saskia Fernando Gallery Exhibitions and Art Fairs
The influence of Sri Lankan life and culture is often evident in Saskia Fernando Gallery’s exhibitions. The gallery’s 2018 solo presentation of the works of Belgium-born Fabienne Francotte, for example, featured a collection of delicate portraits inspired by the artist’s encounters with numerous individuals during her everyday life in Sri Lanka.
Saskia Fernando Gallery has participated in art fairs such as Art Dubai and India Art Fair, further cementing its influence in the region. The gallery also presents a range of external events each year, including Ya Connect: an artist-in-residence programme and talk platform created in collaboration with local co-working space and incubator Hatch.
Saskia Fernando Gallery, in collaboration with ARTRA Magazine, established Collector’s Desk in 2016. Comprised of quarterly panels and lectures for art connoisseurs, past speakers at Collector’s Desk events have included Susanna Orlando, of Susanna Orlando Galleria Pietrasanta in Tuscany; Cresside Collette, daughter of Sri Lankan artist and cartoonist Aubrey Collette; and collector and Softlogic PLC head of investment Niloo Jayatillake.
