Tag Archives: Nazreen Sansoni Director

Jun 7 2012

A moment on canvas.

Preethi Hapuwatte has been working as a designer at Barefoot,since 1972 under inspired guidance and genius of Barbara Sansoni, to whom she was apprenticed in her early years. Preethi says she caught Barbara’s eye because “I anticipated exactly what Barbara needed before she could vocalize it.” Preethi’s affinity for things artistic was nurtured in a creative household that included her engineer father and soon-to-be architect brother, Anura Ratnavibushna. Both were drawing and designing at home. Through the process of osmosis, Preethi’s career in the art and design field took off.
Her love of design and colour soon found expression on canvas, a natural extension of what she was already doing. She loves the “feeling of painting”, the brush on canvas gives her deep satisfaction. This exhibition titled Moments to refer to her unconsciously painted short burst of brushstrokes–a departure from her style shown in earlier paintings. in this case, each stroke signifies a moment in time. This collection of paintings has been worked on since 2010. To contrast a moment in time she paints trees and animal life onto the canvas to denote a lifetime of contemplation and presence. Time to stop and enjoy life —“We should also take a moment to appreciate ourselves and our relationships before they are gone, we tend to miss so many beautiful moments”.
To draw further attention to enjoy our moments instead of ignoring each other, she has chosen to juxtapose her granddaughter’s drawings with hers. Here, she looks for moments of DNA, an artistic heritage passed down from one generation to the next—Preethi is very curious as to what her granddaughter draws, if Preethi perceives a similarity to what she produces and, recognizes the potential, then it is easy for the her to “guide the child”—so they both can value each moment and acknowledge time spent together.
Preethi has had 10 solo and 20 Group exhibitions at Barefoot and other prominent spaces since 1994. Preethi’s work has included assignments by Hemas House, Pheonix Clothing, Ceylinco Seylan Towers and The Millennium Art Collection in the Netherlands—Each one has commissioned her work.

NS June 2012
NS June 2012

Mar 11 2012

Feels like so long ago. (It was, in relative terms)

Nelun Harasgama has been painting ever since she can remember. As a girl she
took classes at the renowned Melbourne Art School, founded by Cora Abrahams.
There Nelun developed her skills, guided by her wonderful teachers, Mrs. Latifa Ismail and Noeliene Fernando.
Ms.Ismail enjoyed taking her students out of the classroom to explore Colombo.
The Vihra Maha Devi Park, The Beaches, Galle face Green… It was
outdoors that Ms. Ismail had her students sit down, to paint. Nelun loved it.

After finishing school at Ladies College in 1977, Nelun went to the
University of Trent to learn the fundamentals of design. In 1981 she left with a degree
in Graphic Visual Communication.
Six months after returning to Sri-Lanka, Nelun joined JWT, and for next
ten years she worked in advertising, including short stints at Masters,
Ribbs, Shri Communications and Grants.

In 1991,she decided to leave the advertising industry and
and joined Barefoot as a designer of fabric and clothes. Today she works on her
own terms, freelancing for a number of clients.She paints in
between her role as mother, wife, designer of books and freelancing as
creative director for various ad campaigns, all conceived and
designed by her.

Nelun’s first exhibition was as a contributor to a group show in 1984 at the
Lionel Wendt . The group consisted of five artists, students
of Lafita Ismail’s adult classes. Michael Anthonis, Sharmaine Mendis were
partcipants (Nelun cannot remember the other two).

Nelun Harasgama’s forthcoming exhibition at the Barefoot Gallery highlights
her characteristic tall, thin like people, without distinctive features
and her stark landscapes. This time, the landscapes focus is on
Hambantota Bay, the paintings sombre in tone with a blue-black hue
Hambantota is where, when not in Colombo, she spends time with her husband,
Luxshman and delightful one of a kind daughter Aringa.

Those of you who know her work will recognise the current series of
paintings, as Nelun depicted similar figures in exhibitions starting
in 1994 at the Hermitage Gallery and thereafter at Gallery 706 and
the Barefoot Gallery.

Beginning in the year 2000, Nelun moved to concentrate on painting landscapes and
the changing environment. Her paintings in those exhibitions consisted of ethereal
images of a landscape that is evolving and vanishing due to our
lack of care and concern. An exceptional exhibition at the Barefoot
Gallery in 2001, titled “wounding, requiem and mourning,” resulted from the
frustration of being witness to the wounding, death, and then, naturally,
the mourning of a landscape which was once there, and now, disappearing.

These paintings depicted in red, black and white an allegorical
reference to our wanton scarring of our countryside. The religious
connotations cannot be ignored.

Nelun was angry at what mankind was doing to our land, trees,
jungles. All of a sudden, she did not care much about people and their
blatant disregard of their environment, their home.
But the Dec. 26 tsunami changed that. Following the distaster, her love of people overshadowed
her concern about the land, and her anger dissipated. Consequently, her figures, once again,
feature prominently. Spurred by the extraordinary number of lives
lost that day – on Dec. 26, 2004 and especially, in her beloved Hambantota
- Nelun saw her “vanishing people” literally vanish, swept with the wave,
displaced, despite the rebuilding efforts.

Where is the amah wearing the Reddha and Hatte sweeping the veranda
timelessly? She paints these people so we will remember them. Ultimately she
paints these images again and again, because she does not want to forget
them, And she does not want us to forget them.
Why does she not paint us? “We are horrid,” she says. “We do not stay in one
place long enough to be painted.”

To the viewer, Nelun’s work is a reminder of how it was once, – these people will
never be part of our lives today. This realization saddens Nelun. It saddens me.
Our generation, especially those of us who came of age in the 60’s and 70’s,
constantly refer to a time where life was simple and we knew the
answers. It is the reason we deeply mourn deaths of loved ones in their 70’s
and 80’s. Gone are they, never to return. They represent a different era,
where values and morals held strong, and a gentle and civilised way of life
was the name of the game. Intelligence in whatever form was deep and true.

But who are we to mourn, this generation in transition? We need to
take what we know and what we‘ve learned and move bravely toward the
future. Our children depend on it. We have to do it to keep us sane, and to
make sense of it all. And the gentle reminder, by Nelun, when we look at her
paintings may be all the sense we need.

A piece on Nelun Harsagama written in 2005 re posted here in the hope she will grace our gallery with an exhibition.
Nazreen Sansoni
Aug. 2005

Feb 23 2012

Round the Potholes

Press Release

The Directors of the Barefoot Gallery in association with the Embassy of Switzerland present: Round the Potholes – Photo Exhibition by Joel Sames

BAREFOOT Gallery Colombo
704 Galle Road
Colombo-3

Opening 24th February – 7.30 pm to 9.30pm
Show runs 25th – 26th February 2012
Saturday 10am – 7pm , Sunday 11am to 5pm

Swiss photographer Joel Sames has been following Street Culture activities around the globe. His photographs allow an inside view into the skateboarding, breakdance and Hip-Hop scenes of Afghanistan, India and Cambodia. Joel especially focuses on programs and organizations using the empowering qualities of those subcultures in the field of development cooperation and peace work.

Joel recently graduated as a postindustrial designer / interaction manager at the Academy of Arts and Design in Basel. His thesis analyzes the possibilities of Street Cultures as a tool in conflict transformation and to empower kids from poor backgrounds.He held talks and presentations at events as the Frankfurt Book Fare, the Asian Pacific Weeks Berlin, the Archive of Youth Cultures and the European University of Voluntary Service.

Opening Event
The opening event at Barefoot Gallery Colomboon Friday 24th February will feature talks and videos about the projects in Afghanistan, India and Cambodia

Joel Samessupports and represents several NGO`s which are using Street Cultures as a tool:

Skateistan– Skateboardingschool Afghanistan, http://www.skateistan.org
Tiny Toones– Hip Hop Drop-in Center Cambodia, http://www.tinytoones.org
Tiny Drops – Hip Hop Breakdance Centre India http://www.tinydrops.org

Downloads:
Press Images: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11105215/Round%20the%20Potholes%20PRESS%20IMAGES.zip
Flyers:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11105215/Round%20the%20Potholes%20Flyers%20COLOMBO%20.zip

For more information please call:

NazreenSansoni
Director
Barefoot Gallery Colombo
barefootgallery@gmail.com
+94 11 2505559

Joel Sames
info@joelsames.ch
+94 776868026