Artist Nisansala Karunaratne Rajapaksa’s art exhibition to commemorate 50 years of Sri Lanka-Bangladesh relations, was held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, Colombo last week.

This is the seventh solo exhibition of oil and watercolour paintings of the artist who has innate skills in the field. Nasansala said that she realised the need for such soothing artistic works for the people to ease the period of tensions following the COVID pandemic which was a crucial period in Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh Ambassador Tareq Mohammed Ariful Islam said in his brief speech that the exhibition further strengthens the people-to-people relations between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The artist who had visited some parts of Bangladesh had depicted some of the features in Bangladesh in an eloquent and effective manner, the envoy added.

An old girl of Colombo Musaeus College, Nisansala’s passion and the honesty of her apprehensions are significant. Her art has developed into a combination of modern techniques and Sri Lankan tradition. Her paintings are in several collections in Sri Lanka and many other countries. She is raised and based in Sri Lanka though she expanded her creative talents (BFA) at the California State University, San Jose, USA. Ambassadors of Bangladesh, France, Maldives, Palestine, Turkey, Cuba, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia and representatives from the South Africa High Commission and Iran Embassy were present.

Text and pix by Ruzaik Farook