Senaka is Sri Lanka's foremost artist, who turned his attention to the flora and fauna of the rain-forest in the late 1990s. He has held over a hundred exhibitions in over 18 countries spanning the five continents. His work can be found in the White House, the UN building in New York, in museums, private collections and corporate headquarters of multinationals around the world. Senaka Senanayake is a painter of our vanishing environment, blending vibrant colours with enhanced intensity that captures the viewer's attention immediately. He is one of those painters whose work is his signature, evident as his from 100 yards away.
"Senaka's native Sri Lanka is his muse and his canvasses capture the vibrancy of his environment - brightly coloured parrots, insects, frogs, in a jungle teeming with colour and movement.
"His work is as much a lament as a love song to a vanishing world. Senaka's painterly language speaks to us about tolerance, co-existence, beauty and balance, and warns us about what we are on the verge of losing, our priceless birth-right, the wonders of the natural world which comes to its most magnificent fruition in the world's rain forests." - Charles Moore
Speaking about his passion for the rain forest Senaka says: "About fifteen years ago my cousin, an environmentalist living in Ecuador visited us in Colombo and inspired me to paint images of Sri Lankan fauna and flora. I opted to paint the positive aspects of the rain forest rather than the destruction of it. As an artist I felt I could use my medium to highlight the need to preserve the remaining rain forests of Sri Lanka where we have lost about 70% of this spectacular and irreplaceable environment."
We look forward to welcoming you to the new gallery in June. An e-catalogue and a list of works will be available in the coming weeks.
