A.D.P. Manohansa
Born 1976, Sri Lanka
Lives and works in Gampaha, Sri Lanka
Biography
Alankara Dewage Prageeth Manohansa is a Sri Lankan contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses sculpture, painting, and mixed media. His work engages with themes of transformation, material memory, and the expressive potential of form, positioning itself within the broader trajectory of contemporary South Asian art.
Since the early stages of his career, Manohansa has cultivated a distinct visual language grounded in the manipulation and reconfiguration of material. His sculptural works, constructed from reclaimed metal and industrial remnants, retain visible traces of their prior function, allowing corrosion, texture, and structural imperfection to remain active elements within the finished form. Through processes of welding, assemblage, and reconstruction, he transforms discarded material into forms that evoke movement, presence, and psychological tension.
Parallel to his sculptural practice, Manohansa’s works on paper and canvas constitute a critical dimension of his artistic inquiry. His paintings frequently depict animals, human figures, and mythological subjects, including bulls, horses, elephants, leopards, birds, and representations of Ganesha. These forms emerge as archetypal presences rather than literal representations, constructed through gestural line and compositional density. His two-dimensional works reveal a structural sensibility informed by sculptural thinking, emphasizing weight, balance, and internal tension.
Over the course of more than two decades, Manohansa has established himself as a significant and enduring presence within Sri Lanka’s contemporary art landscape. His sustained engagement with material transformation and form has contributed to the development of a distinct sculptural and figurative language within the region.
His works range from intimate works on paper to large-scale sculptural installations, and have been exhibited in Sri Lanka and internationally. His practice reflects an ongoing investigation into permanence, decay, and the capacity of material to carry cultural, symbolic, and experiential meaning.
Manohansa lives and works in Gampaha, Sri Lanka.
Artist Statement
My practice is concerned with transformation and the relationship between material and form.
I work with materials that possess history and physical presence. In sculpture, reclaimed metal carries the marks of time and prior use. In painting, gesture and line serve as structural elements through which form emerges.
Animals, human figures, and mythological forms recur throughout my work as symbolic and expressive presences. I am interested in the tension between strength and vulnerability, permanence and change.
Through both sculpture and painting, I seek to reveal the inherent qualities of material and form, allowing each work to exist as an independent physical and emotional structure.
Education
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
University of kelaniya, Sri Lanka — 2026
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
University of kelaniya, Sri Lanka — 2005
Exhibition History
Selected Solo Exhibitions
Wanantharaya — Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka — 2018
Paper Works — Paradise Road Galleries, Colombo, Sri Lanka — 2016
Chromatic — Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka — 2014
Flux — Paradise Road Galleries, Colombo, Sri Lanka — 2013
Gods of Metal — Gallery Steph, Singapore — 2012
Assembled Art — Maldives National Art Gallery, Maldives — 2010
Amangalla Hotel Exhibition — Galle, Sri Lanka — 2009
Galle Art Trail — Galle, Sri Lanka — 2008
Gamana — Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka — 2003
Selected Group Exhibitions
Prism — Harold Peiris Gallery, Sri Lanka — 2026
Disambiguation — Art Dubai, UAE — 2016
All Together Now! — Breese Little Gallery, London, UK — 2014
Emergency — Breese Little Gallery, London, UK — 2014
Temporary Permanence — XVA Gallery, Dubai — 2013
Contemporary Art from Sri Lanka — Asia House, London, UK — 2011
Colombo Art Biennale — Colombo, Sri Lanka — 2009
Museum of Ethnology — Vienna, Austria — 2008
(Further exhibitions ongoing)
Public Installations
Metal Horse Sculpture — Panchikawatta, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Peacock Sculpture — Mattala International Airport, Sri Lanka
(Few to mention)