Grosvenor Gallery presents The Persistence of Memory, an exhibition of recent paintings by two of Sri Lanka’s foremost artists, Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Jagath Weerasinghe. Presented in association with Saskia Fernando Gallery in Colombo, Sri Lanka, this marks the first time in many years that the two artists are showing together in London. Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Jagath Weerasinghe’s works draw from their reflections on Sri Lanka’s changing political landscape a decade after the civil war. While Thenuwara’s practice interrogates the politics of memory and erasure, Weerasinghe’s work offers a frenzied, expressive meditation on tragedy and conflict. Both artists’ careers have been profoundly shaped by the island’s tumultuous contemporary history, marked by ethnolinguistic conflict and political unrest. The works included in this selection, created between 2021 and 2025, respond to recent events, including the 2022 people’s protest movement (Aragalaya) against the Sri Lankan government’s economic mismanagement, and the subsequent political transition.
Find out more about the show here.