STIRworld | KALĀ: ‘Pivot, Glide, and Echo’ with Lionel Wendt and his legacy

February 29, 2024

Curated by Maryam Begum, ‘KALA’ in Colombo celebrates the art from the Sri Lankan region and wider South Asia aiming to foster a more inclusive art community.

The landscape of arts and culture in Sri Lanka is facing a boost after three years of difficulties caused by the pandemic and a political and economic crisis of a scale never seen before. I have been hearing the words “revival”, “exciting”, “courageous”, “thought-provoking”, and even “too much to do, too much to see” from many. Against this backdrop, KALĀ South Asia has been inaugurated as a platform for arts by Saskia Fernando in partnership with the Lionel Wendt Memorial Fund, with the aim of “contributing to the sustainable development of art ecosystems within the Sri Lankan region and wider South Asia.” Fernando begins a noteworthy collaborative effort between two generations and two models of local arts patronage: the Lionel Wendt Memorial Fund established in the mid-1900s and her father’s enterprise Paradise Road The Gallery Café which began in the late 1900s. The first edition of KALĀ consists of an exhibition titled Pivot, Glide, Echo, curated by Maryam Begum with curatorial guidance from Sandhini Poddar, and a series of VIP and public programming which runs from January 29 to February 25, 2024.

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