ARTRA’S ART EXPERIENTIAL FESTIVAL OCT 13-15
In Celebration of the Bawa Brothers

ARTRA’s Art Experiential Festival taking place between Fri-Sun, Oct 13-15 at Cinnamon Bentota Beach & Brief Garden by Bevis Bawa themed ‘Bawa Brothers’ pays homage to the esteemed contributions of Bevis Bawa (1909 - 1992) and Geoffrey Bawa (1919 - 2003) to 20th century Sri Lankan art & architecture. The venues proudly embody this theme– Cinnamon Bentota Beach, ARTRA’s Exclusive Hospitality Partner for this edition, is a prestigious architectural icon built by Geoffrey Bawa in 1967, and a haven to the masterpieces designed by respected local artists such as Ismeth Raheem, Ena de Silva, Laki Senanayake and Barbara Sansoni, and Brief Garden, ARTRA’s Exclusive Heritage Partner, is a living ode to Bevis Bawa’s vivacious appreciation for the natural world and his artistic vocation for natural landscape design. The series of art tours, art talks, and art exhibits at ARTRA’s Art Experiential Festival, therefore, present art enthusiasts and connoisseurs with the unique opportunity to expand their knowledge regarding the Bawa Brothers, while seamlessly integrating the theme of ARTRA Magazine's Comics & Caricatures’, their forthcoming edition exploring the works of Gihan de Chickera, Bevis Bawa and Aubrey Collette.
ARTRA Magazine’s ‘Comics and Caricatures’ is set to launch at 4.15 pm on Sat, Oct 14 at Brief Garden by Bevis Bawa, in Bentota as a part of their grandiose Art Experiential Festival | Bawa Brothers which will run from 13 to 15th October. The flamboyant festival promises a dynamic line-up of riveting programs over its three-day run, including fascinating art talks, art tours, and exhibitions that will collate an exclusive crowd of Sri Lanka’s most prominent figures and minds in the modern and contemporary art scene. This entails insights from author and photojournalist Juliet Coombe who penned best-sellers such as ‘Around the Galle Fort in 80 Lives’ and ‘Sri Lanka’s Other Half: A Guide to the Central, Eastern and Northern Provinces’, and Cresside Collette contemporary artist and daughter of Aubrey Collette, as well as Rohan de Soysa celebrated photographer and Chairman of the Sapumal Foundation, and Dooland de Silva the owner and guardian of Brief, the Home and Garden of Bevis Bawa, and an iconic landscape designer who has worked with Geoffrey Bawa in his remarkable creations. For an in-depth look at ARTRA’s Art Experiential Festival | Bawa Brothers program line-up, visit the official ARTRA website at https://www.artra.lk/visual-art/programme-of-aef-oct-2023.
Wielding bold visual metaphor with a tenacious wit and social consciousness that brings to mind George Orwell’s iconic ‘Animal Farm’, Gihan de Chickera’s collection of profound contemporary cartoons cuts to the bleak heart of Sri Lanka’s socio-political discourses. Known in Sri Lanka’s contemporary consciousness as a decorated political cartoonist and journalist, de Chickera has held a distinguished tenure at Daily Mirror newspaper for almost two decades, and has won numerous local and international accolades such as the ‘Cartoonist of the Year’ at the Journalism Awards for Excellence in 2012, the merit for the same in 2015, and was selected to participate in the United States International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) for political cartoonists from South Asia and the Middle East in 2011. ARTRA’s forthcoming ‘Comics & Caricatures’ Edition will feature a series of de Chickera’s thought-provoking works, which will highlight his evocative use of animal iconography to parallel and critique relevant worldly events. Azara Jaleel Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ARTRA revealed that de Chickera in ‘Comics & Caricatures’ tackles a fascinating variety of perspectives and delves into topics such as anthropomorphism, feminism, economic downfall, and corruption, for a diverse and satirically rich artistic experience.
Alongside de Chickera’s works, ARTRA’s ‘Comics & Caricatures’ will feature pieces from the legendary artists and caricaturists Aubrey Collette (1920 - 1992) and Bevis Bawa (1909 - 1992). Famed for his iconic affiliation with the ‘43 Group, Aubrey Collette was a remarkable caricature artist whose works danced the delicate lines between comic and critical, which brought to light the socio-political intricacies underlying Sri Lanka’s prominent societal figures in the early to mid-1900s. His works include farcical depictions of then-prominent socialite Yvonne Gulamhusein and coloured prints of his popular ‘Seven Prime Ministers Series’. Similar to Collette, Bevis Bawa was inclined to draw his various glamorous friends within Sri Lanka in a uniquely witty and satirical fashion. These grand yet grotesque drawings featured in ‘Comics & Caricatures’ will broaden conventional understandings of Bawa’s artistic inclinations, which live in Sri Lanka’s contemporary culture through his venerated artistry related to natural landscape architecture, namely Brief, his revered Home and Garden. ARTRA Magazine’s ‘Comics & Caricatures’ elucidates the significance of humour within the larger genre of alternative storytelling, exploring the potent and timeless role mediums such as cartoons and caricatures play in dissecting imminent socio-political issues of the day.
For Tickets and festival day passes for ARTRA’S Art Experiential Festival | Bawa Brothers on the 13th to 15th October 2023 & to pre-order your copy of the Comics & Caricatures Edition 65 call +9477 570 1891.