Priyantha Udagedara (b.1975, Kandy, Sri Lanka. Lives and works in Colombo) is an artist and art historian whose practice engages with post – war realities, cultural identity and visual memory through layered floral compositions. His work reinterprets the idea of the tropical paradise, revealing the tension between beauty, fragility and historical trauma. He has exhibited nationally and internationally in countries including India, Australia, Portugal, Dubai, United States of America and The United Kingdom.
Holding a PhD in contemporary fine art practice and an MA in contemporary Art and Design practice from Leeds Metropolitan university, UK awarded through the presidential scholarship, Udagedara currently serves as a senior lecturer at the university of the visual and performing arts, Colombo.
Udagedara's works have been greatly influenced by his experience of the Sinhala and Tamil ethnic conflict and political unrest in Sri Lanka from 1983 onwards. The so called peaceful paradisiac island that he once knew had turned into a scarred monster where crisis had penetrated the norm and disrupted the perceptions of a serene and peaceful place as portrayed in all tourist-focused advertising. Udagedara's current practice consists of an ensemble of floral depictions which are tropical and endemic, as well as exotic and foreign. These floral clusters alongside their correspondig leaves form a well knitted tapestry a myriad of flowers in vibrant acrylic shades of red, orange, yellow, golden, blue, mauve, white and more. Paper cuttings of botanical or magazine-extracted images of flowers and plants, pieces of household materials or cheeththa cloth with their printed designs and open mesh fabric come together to create this potpourri of blossoms and branches.