Mahen Perera constantly challenges the medium of painting, pushing its limits into spatial forms, tactile layers and corporeal realms. His work undergoes through a tedious process of manipulation where it is ripped, tied, knotted and stitched to explore different nuances of material permutation, while delicately and patiently shaping or forcefully misshaping he extends his pictorial frame into a painting structure and object. In his sculptural work he often incorporates found objects and personal artifacts that carry the traces of an unknown protagonist. Perera works with the emotional schemes of memory and desire as intrinsic characteristics in the making of his work. In avowing the residual, he negotiates between facets of absence and presence. Evocative of organic relics and archeological finds, the work intimately explores and celebrates the residual.
Read MoreMahen Perera, lives and works in Sri Lanka, trained in multi-disciplinary design at the National Design Centre in Colombo before going on to pursue his BA in fine arts from the Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. As a recipient of the prestigious Winston Oh Travel Award in 2007, Perera undertook a month long residency in Prague. His recent exhibitions include, The Sea Change (Colombo Scope, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2019), Stories within (Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2018), Making History - Colombo Art Biennale ( Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2014) and Serendipity Revealed (Brunei Gallery, London, UK, 2014). He also represented Sri Lanka for Project One (Jindal Steel, Mumbai, India, 2016) in collaboration with Vogue India.
