Damitha Iddamalgoda
1980, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Damitha attained his BFA in Painting from the University of Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo (2009). He then completed his MVA from the M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat, India (2021). He has participated in group exhibitions such as ”Shades of Black and White”, JDA Gallery, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka (2019), and the State Arts and Sculpture Festival, JDA Gallery, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka (2018,17). He was also a participant in the “Sri Lankan Artist” organized by The George Keyt Foundation, JDA Gallery, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka ( 2018,17). His other exhibitions include “UNTITLED” as a member of the Visual Arts Group (2017, 2016, 2015). He represented Sri Lanka in the “Exhibition of Independence” by the Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France (2008).
He has exhibited in and organized “MOB”, Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka (2008), and “Four Vision”, National Art Gallery, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka (2006). He has contributed to the “Tsunami Exhibition” at The Faculty of Visual Arts, University of Visual and Performing Arts [UVPA] Colombo 07, Sri Lanka. He has won state awards including the Third Prize in the category of Portrait “State Art & Sculpture Festival” (2008) and the Second Prize in the category of Landscape “State Art & Sculpture Festival” (2005). He has also received scholarships including the Stevens Hanson Scholarship (2005) and G. S. Fernando Scholarship (2005), UVPA Colombo 07, Sri Lanka. Damitha lives and works in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Working primarily with the media of painting and drawing, Damitha is interested in the two-dimensional process of image-making. He finds his subjects in and around his existing phenomena. For him, the subject matter and the painterly surface are signs that reveal the conventional understanding of the painting as a medium serving the image; an understanding that Damitha believes could be reversed. His endeavors to recognize the relationship between the portrait as a surface and as an image offers another creative possibility. According to him, a portrait is not a sense of a pure, mirrored representation of the sitter, it is a matter of engaging performativity – it occurs in sensations that can precede the interrelationships with eyes, mind, and the hand in the art-making process.
He reforms and reproduces his subjects with brush marks, painted with color, lines, shapes, and spaces, proceeding to produce a manner of language while trying to look at the existing subject differently. His approach to portraiture and figuration foregrounds a painterly expression, producing representative, expressionistic qualities and abstraction simultaneously. The narrative, for Damitha, is secondary, as depicting the human figure becomes an instrument to intensify the image. The message is not pertinent when compared to the experience of noticeable visual forms through an object, person, or situation.
Contact Details:
Telephone: +91 940 95 76 548, +94 77 8 14 24 65
Email: iddamalgodand@gmail.com
Facebook: Damitha Iddamalgoda