DREAMER WHO DRAWS

Twenty-year old Yohan Medhanka is a self-taught artist. He has a skill and intensity that is uncommon in artists with no formal education in fine art. In the few weeks since his paintings have collected in our gallery, waiting to be hanged in this exhibition, they have captivated each person that looks upon them.

There is something incredibly real in the work of this young painter. His faces tell a story, while his technique merges oil painting with contemporary colours and concepts. Many artists have connected with the North in postwar Sri Lanka, often travelling there to mentor or to conduct workshops. For Medhanka, it just took one visit to captivate him. And after what seems to have been a three year journey from painting to meditating and back, he has emerged with a powerful series of portraits that prove to us that young Sri Lankan contemporaries still have what it takes.

His solo exhibition will be open at Saskia Fernando Gallery from June 20 to July 4.

"I did something new every week, my teacher taught me about watercolour. It was hard to learn oil painting in school. For an exhibition at school we were meant to do some painting. The exhibition never happened but I bought some oil paint and I found a canvas at home, that my father had left behind and it was really old. It may have been 15-20 years old. I stretched it and I did my first oil painting of my mother. Da Vinci was my inspiration for this painting. I taught myself how to paint with oil paints. After O Levels I joined the Art Way Institute and I was there for one year and I found new friends and learnt about how things work in the art scene in Sri Lanka."

Noble teacher

Medhanka had to learn everything alone. Jagath Ravindra taught him for a few days. He was not a permanent lecturer. But his lessons were the best Medhanka have ever had.

"I joined Saskia Fernando Gallery to work as Gallery Assistant. My schooling was a nightmare, so I had little direction and then I just ended up at the gallery. I learnt a lot about Sri Lankan artists working in the gallery for two months. Then when I left the gallery I was lost. I joined a monastery and I lived there for one and a half years. I stopped painting. I was not a religious person but I met a Buddhist monk who preached good things to me. While I was there I used ball point pen and scrap books and kept drawing my left hand. I focused on this for a while. This act became meditative for me. Drawing became spiritual for me. My experience there gave me freedom. I was surrounded by nature. I detest the city. When I left the monastery after one and a half years I began working on the exhibition at the Alliance Francais. This was my first solo show in December 2012."

Politically inclined

Medhanka views himself as a socialist. He could work in the advertising industry but he chose to be an artist to avoid working on the promotion of a product or idea. We have a duty in our freedom of expression to speak for those unspoken for. He thinks when it comes to art, mainly in Sri Lanka, the politically inclined artists use art to promote their own agenda.

"I loved Jaffna. It was three years ago. I loved the people. I had this crazy dream to become mayor of the city. I fell in love with the landscapes, the people. There was a purity there. It felt real and natural to me."

More information on Yohan Medhanka could be obtained by contacting [email protected]