Mr. Dumith Kulasekara

Dumith Kulasekara is a Senior Lecturer in Drawing and Painting at the Department of Painting. He joined the Department in 2009. He is also an artist and a researcher in visual arts. He received his BFA (Hons) in Painting from UVPA and MFA in Painting from New York Academy of Art in New York. He had received a special training of the Old Master’s Paintings in the Baroque Period at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York under the MFA program. He was a cell leader at the QAC at the Faculty of Visual Arts (2017-2018). He received two years Fulbright Scholarship for the MFA (2012 -2014). He was also awarded two fellowships for residency research program in Korea National University of Art in South-Korea and SOJO University in Japan in 2016 and 2019 respectively. He was also a tutor of MFA program at the Fine Art Department in University of Kelyaniya in Sri Lanka in 2019. Since 2018 he has been the Head of Department of Painting at the Faculty of Visual Arts – UVPA. He has held three solo exhibitions; two of them were held in Colombo and one was in Seoul- South Korea and, has participated in many group shows in Sri Lanka, Cuba, India, Singapore, London, New York and Paris where his works have been in private art collections in addition to the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Austria.

Research Interests:

My research interest focuses on Body, Gender, Memories and Trauma which reflect through the body of studio works, curated exhibitions and research publications made by me since 2006. I explore visual arts practice through the critical theory particularly psychoanalytical theory and phenomenological reading and approaches of the visual arts practice. I produced a research paper on French realist painter Gustavo Courbet’s which was presented as a virtual exhibition in Athens in 2016. Association of phenomenological investigation of visual arts practice reflects through a research I did on Monochrome Practice represented in Contemporary Arts. My visits to major visual arts collections in the USA and Europe, Japan, South Korea and India have been a huge influence on the interests of my research studio practice which significantly supports understanding the materiality and the technical narrative of works of art. Currently I have been engaging with several research project: a collective writing on traumas and psychoanalytical reading of visual arts, a research project on Refurbishment of Heywood Building and Cast Collections into a Museum of Visual Arts – (Faculty building transformations project), a Series of Writing on Sri Lankan Arts which is published online through my official blog, and a curating an exhibition of Department of Painting Staff in 2021.

Publications:

• “Kulasekara, D (2018) “Examining the Idea of Monochrome Represented in Contemporary Art”, Athens: ATINER’s Conference Paper Series, NO: ISBN: 978-960-598-199-0
• Kulasekara, D (2016) “Representation of Trauma in Contemporary Arts”, Athens: ATINER’s Conference Paper Series, NO: ART2015 -1907. ISSN: 2241-2891
• Kulasekara, D (2016) “The Origin of the World: its Iconic place in the History and Contemporary Arts”, 7th International Conference on Visual and Performing Art (P 37) Abstract Book, First Published in Athens, Greece by the Athens Institute for Education and Research. ISBN: 978-960-598-053-5
• Kulasekara, D (2015) “Representation of Trauma in Contemporary Visual Arts”, 6th International Conference on Visual and Performing Art (P 46) Abstract Book 4 First Published in Athens, Greece by the Athens Institute for Education and Research. ISBN: 978-960-598-002-3

Awards:

International

• 2018-2019 (Dec- Jan) Visiting Professor and Art Residence, Fine Art Department, SOJO University, Kumamoto, Japan.
• 2016 Fellowship: Art Major Faculty Explore Korea (AMFEK), Korea National University of Arts, Seoul, South Korea.
• 2012 – 2014 Fulbright Advanced Research & Lecturing Award, For Master of Fine Arts at the
  New York Academy of Arts. United States – Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission.
• 2014 the Joan Brady Award provided by Trustee Margot Gordon, New York Academy of Art, NY, USA.
• 2013 First Year Merit Scholarship, New York Academy of Art, NY, USA

National

• 2002-2008 Four years of undergraduate scholarship (monthly stipend), by UGC, Colombo, 07, SL.
• 2006 second Prize at the exhibition of Young Contemporaries, Organized by the George Keyt Foundation, Colombo, SL.
• 2005 Consolation prize, State Painting and Sculpture Award Festival.
• 2003-2004 G.S. Fernando Scholarships, UVPA, Colombo 07, SL.
• 2002-2003 Stevens Hanson Scholarships, UVPA Colombo 07, SL.
• 2002 Consolation prize of Population poster contest- jointly organized by the Population Division of the
  Ministry of Health & UNFPA.
• 1999-2000 E.C.B. Wijesinghe Scholarship, UVPA and Tower Hall Theater Foundation, Colombo 07, SL.

Other Links :

Google Scholar   |  ResearchGate