Though Premarasa’s paintings with their cryptic references and symbols refer to this specific place and period, they also speak more widely of this disparate, piecing together through other people’s memories, myth and material culture, the quiet and constant listening and filling in of gaps undertaken by children of immigrants belonging to diasporas.

A graduate of Middlesex University, in her final year Premarasa was nominated for the Freelands Foundation Painting Prize 2024 and presented three works at their annual exhibition of the winning artists. In 2024 she was also selected for New Contemporaries and participated in the exhibition which ran from January to March this year at the ICA. She describes it as a big moment – “it was the first time my work reached beyond my usual academic space and opened up opportunities after graduating.”

It was at the ICA that gallery owner Niru Ratnam first saw Premarasa’s work. It caught his attention – and led to an invitation to hold the artist’s first commercial solo exhibition, at the gallery, now on view until August 9th. “I was really struck by the way she navigates the idea of how we diasporic folk piece together the stories, half-remembered episodes and silences that our families and family friends give us about the country our cultural origins are from.” Ratnam said. “Her paintings are vibrant, mysterious and moving and use the idea of story-telling to convey some complex historical observations. Aside from that, they are just really strong paintings – the handling, the motifs and the use of empty space. I think she has a great future ahead of her!”

The future does indeed look bright for the young artist – who only graduated last year and is still only in her early twenties. The paintings at Niru Ratnam show a masterful command of colour and composition, the space between the figures, animals and objects she depicts inviting the imagination to fill in. See her work again soon in London at a group show at the Saatchi Gallery in October in London, and in November at Art Mumbai.