Thursday, may 27- Sunday, may 28, 2000

By Andrea Boekel

Sujith Rathnayake is a slight, fair- complexioned young man with an affable manner and intense, expressive eyes. He is one of the genres of burgeoning, contemporary artists, yet through his art, he has strived to struggle out of the groove a lot of artists slip into. In his own right, he is a rebel with a cause because although he is quick to say he is not contemptuous of tradition, Sujith is basically non-conformist.

His art is brilliant, thought provoking, vivid and exuberant, morbid and melancholy, passionate and soul stirring. Nowhere has there been a visual expression of such motley of emotions coming through. And yet his palette is simple – black and white with an occasional streak of red.

The human form also fascinates Sujith. His art is especially complimentary to the male form. Sinewy male forms lay stretched across his canvasses. Panther-like. Phalluses are painted just as skillfully as the rippling muscles gleaming on a perfect male form. His men are perfect, an air of machismo is unmistakable, and their limbs ripple with melodious fluidity as they are portrayed in near-acrobatic poses in vivid black on white. Adonis-like, their faces are sometimes obliterated deliberately leaving the viewer to assume their own emotions, but the grace and perfection of form is exemplary. Sujith is and enigmatic young man. There is a streak of the brand of rebellion that often makes for an exceptional artist. Talking to him leaves one pondering long after the conversation has died down.

A final term student of the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, university of Kelaniya, Sujith has had showings over the past couple of years, in many places.

He has won the Merit Award at the National Youth Award Festival in 1998, the "artist of the year award" for the Young Contemporary Artists' Exhibition held by the George Keyt Foundation in 1999 and the Merit award at the State Arts Festival of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka in 1999.

Talking to Sujith, one can relate to the customary angst typical of artists like himself. "People imagine black and white to be mournful, but I find it strong and vivid, I am comfortable with it."

Sujith, as part of his art grounding had to study sculpture. "Sculpting is a long-drawn out process, it involves casting, molding, etc." he added. Hi said he used his remarkable art, to transform his inherent talent for sculpting into paintings. As expected, there is a start 3-D look to his paintings.

He does not use models, but his paintings are a delightful mix of collage, brush strokes, super-imposition and detail. His paintings leave the viewer's curiosity aroused, but titillate maddeningly with their ambiguity. The titles of his paintings are equally complex ''Organisation'' is a strange mix of a series of hands, ‘‘who or what am I in this

World '' is a series of 6 paintings all portraying a lone, male figure atop the world. A blurb

Signifying his thoughts is left poignantly empty.

There is no doubt that Sujith is an extraordinarily talented young man who will definitely

Write his name across the artists' skies. His art is as unique as he is, the subject mater is

deep and profound, and it is to Udayshanth Fernando' s credit, the large than- life personality behind the '' paradise Road" concept that his belief is fostering the talent

of young, contemporary artists such as Sujith's leave Sri Lanka's art loving publicly

so completely satiated.