Rajitha Rupasinghe
Darshani Rathnayake
Catharina Danial
Kavishwara Jayasekera
In a country where the arts have long navigated economic uncertainty and social upheaval, the Artists for Artists Production Fund offers a rare and vital space for creation. Established in 2021 as Sri Lanka’s first publicly funded arts grant, the initiative was conceived as a homegrown effort to support contemporary artists at a moment when resources are scarce and challenges are many. It has become a lifeline for practitioners seeking the freedom to experiment, to probe memory, identity, and the world around them, and to share new work with the public.
Now in its fourth year, the Production Fund has grown alongside Sri Lanka’s contemporary art scene. The 2025 cycle introduced an international panel of judges, including Andrea Tomasi of the Michelangelo Foundation, Jaya Asokan from India Art Fair, Selyna Peiris of Selyn Group, and Theseus Chan of WORK/WERK Magazine. The panel brought perspectives that span local and global contexts, offering artists both the rigor of critical dialogue and the grounding of Sri Lankan realities.
The works created through this cycle will be presented at the Production Fund Exhibition, opening on February 11, 2026 at the New Garden Gallery, Sapumal Foundation in Colombo. The exhibition will remain open until February 15. It showcases four artists whose practices reflect both the diversity of contemporary art in Sri Lanka and the intimate, deeply personal nature of artistic exploration.
Catharina Danial engages with memory, heritage, and the natural environment of northern Sri Lanka. Her work moves between painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and mixed media. It draws on childhood recollections, the architectural and cultural heritage of Jaffna, and reflections on ocean biodiversity. Each piece invites viewers into a world shaped by memory and place, where the past and present coexist in delicate tension.
Darshani Rathanayake works at the intersection of photography, research, and archives. She is the founder of Memories of the Ordinary, a collection of found photographs that preserves overlooked stories from Sri Lanka. Her practice layers images with poetic text and reconstructed timelines, exploring absence, domesticity, and anonymity. Each work reimagines what a single photograph can reveal about time, place, and emotion.
Rajitha Rupasinghege bridges the worlds of art and architecture to examine power, representation, and access. His installations, paintings, and spatial interventions question whose stories are told and who has the authority to define art. He challenges passive engagement, inviting audiences to reflect on exclusion, marginalization, and the subtle absurdities of daily life.
Kavishwara Jayasekara’s work carries the weight of history and tradition. Rooted in the Southern Region’s temple painting styles, his practice draws on the legacy of resistance and cultural expression. Having begun as a pandal and temple painter, he now blends historical reverence with contemporary critique. His work emphasizes art as a vessel for dialogue, reflection, and continuity, bridging the sacred and the modern.
Mentorship forms the core of the Production Fund’s approach. Each artist participates in a three-month period of intensive guidance with mentors chosen to align with the artist’s practice and proposed project. This year, mentors included Firi Rahman, Liz Fernando, Manisha Baswani, Menika Van der Poorten, Tenzing Rigdol, Thusitha Ranasinghe, and others. The process allows artists to explore unfamiliar materials and approaches, to refine ideas through research, and to realize work that might otherwise have remained unrealized.
The Fund also relies on the generosity of the artistic community. The Third A4A Annual Fundraiser brought together twenty-one leading contemporary artists, each contributing a work on an unglazed ceramic bowl. The proceeds directly support the Production Fund and its principle that artists sustain artists.
The Production Fund Exhibition is not simply a display of work. It is a testament to a community that nurtures its own, a space where ideas are tested, transformed, and shared. In Colombo, from February 11 to 15, the exhibition offers the public a glimpse into the evolving world of contemporary Sri Lankan art, where creativity, memory, and cultural heritage converge. All proceeds from the exhibition go directly to the participating artists, sustaining a cycle of creation and support that has become indispensable to the local artistic landscape.
