KALĀ South Asia

KALĀ South Asia Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from KALĀ South Asia, Art, 32/4 Barnes Place, Colombo.

A platform dedicated to South Asian Art
KALĀ, a dynamic arts platform in Sri Lanka, champions the growth of Sri Lankan modern and contemporary art within the broader South Asian context.

Darshani works with photography and found archives, reconstructing forgotten domestic narratives and quiet histories thr...
12/02/2026

Darshani works with photography and found archives, reconstructing forgotten domestic narratives and quiet histories through poetic fragmentation and research-led image practice .rathnayake














Exploring power, access and representation, disrupting who art is for, where it is seen and who defines its value
12/02/2026

Exploring power, access and representation, disrupting who art is for, where it is seen and who defines its value













The third Artists for Artists (A4A) Production Fund Exhibition is open to the public.Thank you to all the artists who ap...
12/02/2026

The third Artists for Artists (A4A) Production Fund Exhibition is open to the public.

Thank you to all the artists who applied, and congratulations to this year’s awardees.
.rathnayake

To our mentors, jury members in Sri Lanka and internationally, the 21 artists who contributed to the annual fundraiser, and thanks go all our partners, patrons and collectors for your continued support of this unique, artist-led production fund.

12.02.26 – 15.02.26
10AM – 5PM
Garden Gallery
The Sapumal Foundation
32/4 Barnes Place
Colombo 7



.a.karunaratne .the_artist .g.tomasi

Join us for the preview of the Artists for Artists (A4A) Production Fund ExhibitionFeaturing works by this year’s awarde...
10/02/2026

Join us for the preview of the Artists for Artists (A4A) Production Fund Exhibition

Featuring works by this year’s awardees:
Catharina Danial
Darshani Rathanayake
Kavishwara Jayasekera
Rajitha Rupasinghe

📅 12 - 15 February 2026
🕕 10.00 AM – 5.00 PM
📍 Garden Gallery, The Sapumal Foundation
32/4 Barnes Place, Colombo 07

Now in its third year, the Artists for Artists (A4A) Production Fund supports Sri Lankan artists through locally funded grants and mentorship, enabling the development of new work and strengthening sustained artistic practice within Sri Lanka’s contemporary art community.


KALĀ South Asia is proud to present Dumiduni Illangasinghe as the first international artist-in-residence of the India A...
05/02/2026

KALĀ South Asia is proud to present Dumiduni Illangasinghe as the first international artist-in-residence of the India Art Fair’s Artist-in-Residence programme. In the programme’s five-year history, Dumiduni’s inclusion marks an important moment—positioning Sri Lanka as a compelling and distinctive voice within the South Asian contemporary art landscape.

View Dumiduni Illangasinghe’s outdoor installation located next to the Institution’s Pavilion, near the main entrance to India Art Fair.

Sri Lanka–born artist Dumiduni Illangasinghe’s practice engages with fragility, ritual, and processes of healing. Working across material and symbolic forms, she draws on the logic of mycelial networks to examine dualities of strength and vulnerability within natural systems. Her work reflects an ongoing interest in cyclical time, transformation, and material continuity.

Artwork Details: Soft Armours, 2026, MDF panels (4mm ) with a collage of red broken glass bangles, biodegradable polythene mushrooms and porcelain clay mushrooms, 120 × 60 cm (30 nos), 80 × 60 cm (5 nos)

KALĀ continues to focus on building meaningful connections that place Sri Lankan artists within wider South Asian conversations and regional platforms.

Shared Ground: A South Asian ConversationThank you to everyone who visited, engaged, and contributed to the many thought...
01/02/2026

Shared Ground: A South Asian Conversation

Thank you to everyone who visited, engaged, and contributed to the many thoughtful conversations over the past weeks.

While the exhibition has come to a close, look out online as we reflect on the practices, connections, and exchanges that shaped our Shared Ground.

Participated artists:

— Ahmed Rasel (Bangladesh)cultures — Eagan Badeeu (Maldives)
— Farhat Ali (Pakistan)
— Firi Rahman (Sri Lanka)
— Gopa Trivedi (India)
— Khadim Ali Vibha
— Kishwar Kiani (Pakistan)
— Kiran Maharjan (Nepal)
— Phurba Namgay (Bhutan)
— Tashi Lama (Nepal)
— Vibha Galhotra (India)
— Marie Gnanaraja (Sri Lanka)

—

.tanya

We are pleased to announce that Cité Internationales des Arts, in collaboration with Institut Français, has selected Loj...
23/01/2026

We are pleased to announce that Cité Internationales des Arts, in collaboration with Institut Français, has selected Lojithan Ram for the artist-in-residence program to research and develop a creative project in Paris 🇫🇷 for a period of three months.

The Cité internationale des arts, the world’s largest arts residence, has been bringing together more than 300 artists of all origins and generations in the heart of Paris since 1965, giving them the opportunity to carry out a creative or research project in all disciplines.

This residency is supported by the collaborative efforts of KALĀ South Asia, French Embassy in Sri Lanka and the Maldives () and l’Institut Français ()

Congratulations Lojithan!

10/01/2026

Marking her Sri Lankan debut, Richi Bhatia presents a self-led performance shaped by embodied research, material inquiry, and audience interaction.

The performance unfolds with a sound piece in the background as viewers are invited to engage with fish scales applied to the artist’s face — collapsing the distance between body, material, and spectator. What follows is an informal conversation, opening space to reflect on how the body and material are read across different geographies, informed by mythology, food practices, gender, and cultural memory.

Rooted in long, labour-intensive processes, Bhatia’s practice moves between performance, drawing, object-making, and community-based inquiry, using the body as a sensing tool to navigate personal and collective systems. This debut initiates a dialogue that is local in encounter, yet expansive in resonance.

How do homes remembered, lost, or reimagined shape who we become?Ripple Sail for Reconciliation brings together artists ...
07/01/2026

How do homes remembered, lost, or reimagined shape who we become?

Ripple Sail for Reconciliation brings together artists and thinkers to explore memory, domestic space, and lived histories as sites of healing and continuity across South Asia and its diasporas.

Moderated by Puja Vaish, curator and writer engaging with contemporary art and cross-cultural dialogue.

Featuring Hasini Haputhanthri, whose research explores archives, migration, and intergenerational memory; Gopa Trivedi, working with traditional knowledge systems, natural pigments, and ecology-rooted practices; Hamra Abbas, whose work interrogates belief systems, identity, and political histories; and Pradeep Thalawatta, reflecting on home, displacement, and socio-political realities through lived experience.

Join a conversation that reconsiders the past as a living force shaping the future.

Register via the link 🔗 https://forms.gle/WrNTJ4Me6WDP4PFK7

What carries culture forward?Carriers of Creative Force brings together voices from textiles, collecting, curation, and ...
07/01/2026

What carries culture forward?

Carriers of Creative Force brings together voices from textiles, collecting, curation, and public art to examine material heritage, memory, and place in shaping contemporary South Asian creativity.

Moderated by Pujan Gandhi, curator and arts professional working across institutional and public-facing practices.

Featuring Vibha Galhotra, addressing ecology, environment, and the politics of land and labour; Mayank Mansingh Kaul, specialising in Indian textiles and craft histories; Kailash K Shrestha, exploring heritage and community-based knowledge; Indira Kithsiri, foregrounding material culture and diasporic histories; and Firi Rahman, engaged with contemporary practice and cultural platforms.

A conversation on objects, makers, and the shared spaces where culture is activated.

Register via the link 🔗 https://forms.gle/6MHrEUxc7DfwHqd59�

TAKE on Art × KALĀOf Mirage and Mirror: Passage on PhotographyWorkshop on Photography Writing17 January 202611.00 am – 3...
04/01/2026

TAKE on Art × KALĀ
Of Mirage and Mirror: Passage on Photography
Workshop on Photography Writing

17 January 2026
11.00 am – 3.00 pm (1.00–2.00 pm lunch break)
138 Galle Road, Colombo 03

This workshop explores how photographs produce meaning, shape memory, and circulate within culture and history, with a focus on writing with and through images. Participants will engage in close reading, discussion, and writing exercises that emphasise attentiveness, precision, and critical pause in a visually saturated world.

Led by Dilpreet Bhullar, editor, researcher, and Managing Editor of TAKE on Art, whose work engages visual culture, decolonisation, and curatorial practice across South Asia.

Open to writers, artists, and anyone interested in writing, across disciplines and stages of practice.
Limited seats available.

Register via the link 🔗

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf9YxyDSOPuVdtP1zBC3jbQpDjoz68zQcl6SD3LeJrko3LJbQ/viewform

KALĀ × TAKE on Art comes together in Colombo this January for a two day exhibition of South Asian artists, talks and wor...
03/01/2026

KALĀ × TAKE on Art comes together in Colombo this January for a two day exhibition of South Asian artists, talks and workshops.

Opening weekend: 17–18 January 2026.

Rooted in questions of memory, materiality, reconciliation, and creative force, the programme brings together practices and perspectives from across South Asia.











tanya


















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32/4 Barnes Place
Colombo
00700

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