Malinda Jayasinghe (b. 1992, Gampaha Sri Lanka) uses the visual arts as a platform to explore religious, racial and gender privilege prevalent in institutions of power. Born into a Sinhala-Buddhist household in post-war Sri Lanka, educated at an all-boys school and cast within an aggressively patriarchal and majoritarian culture, Jayasinghe’s identity and immediate environment are both textbook and thematic source material. Unscathed by the 26-year armed conflict, he remains a witness to the ongoing oppression of minority communities by the dominant social groups to which he belongs. Jayasinghe began his career in the visual arts in 2019, prior to which he worked in the corporate sector and completed a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance. Self-taught in classical drawing and painting techniques, Jayasinghe’s initial focus was on learning photo-realism through pencil portraiture.
After completing an Art History course at Theertha International Artists Collective in 2019, Jayasinghe’s practice evolved to fuse his interest in socio-political currents and identity via a more concept-driven approach. His current practice takes a multidisciplinary approach using drawing, painting and sculpting and experimenting with natural and manmade materials.