Over a four-decade long practice, the Sri Lankan-born artist has studied Miniature Painting in Lahore, before moving to the UK where he gained a scholarship for the Drawing Year Program at the prestigious Royal Drawing School. He is currently an MFA student in the painting department at the University of Arts. Gunarathne’s work has already been acquired for several major collections including Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India and the Royal Art Collection, UK. He has participated in Art Mumbai, India Art Fair and since his first solo exhibition in 1995, he has exhibited at Christie’s, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Colombo and the Dhaka Art Summit.

Gunarathne’s recent exhibitions include Saskia Fernando Gallery’s group exhibition, served to you with a dash of lime, bringing together contemporary artists from Sri Lanka and the diaspora in their Colombo gallery to present humorous, critical and deliberately contrasting views of the contemporary experience of being Sri Lanka, living in the country or elsewhere, that defy a single notion of belonging. This is at the heart of Gunarathne’s practice, figurative paintings that often explore his experiences as a migrant, drawing too on observations sketched in journals in pastel, charcoal, pencil and pen the artist has long kept, masterfully translating them into oil on canvas with his distinctive, daring palettes and masterful brushwork, adapted from years of diligent classical training.

Gunaratne’s champion for The Wick is Dr. Kunal Ray, writer and academic, who said: “Arjuna Gunarathne’s practice serves as a constant reminder of the triumph and relevance of the painting and why we return to the medium to renew our aesthetic of what constitutes the thought provokingly beautiful. Reflecting on his immediate environment, the paintings endeavour to locate the artist in the world – both in his current habitat in London as well as the memories of growing up in a troubled paradise, Sri Lanka. Influenced by the miniature painting tradition, his compositions are also noteworthy for several other elements such as the presence of botanical life and solitary individuals in a contemplative mood. They also seem to draw our attention to the most pressing need of our time – ecological balance. We may have inherited a paradise but are we doing enough to safeguard it? The paintings serve as a reminder as well as a warning. Gunarathne, like any good artist, leaves us with several probing questions. His work is a meditation on human existence in the treacherous times we inhabit.”

It’s easy to see why Ray reads Gunarathne’s paintings this way. His figurative, expressionistic paintings often depict lonely, solitary characters in pensive poses, dislocated in some way, surrounded by intricate patterns that suggest their inner state. His landscapes too transform familiar scenes – Hampstead Heath or Charing Cross station – into a riots of tempestuous, charged movement and colour, surfaces worked intensely. With their open-ended, dreamlike narrative, they showcase Gunarathne’s unique ability to blend global art history with own personal, intimate experiences.