Tharanga Goonetilleke
The Endangered, Can Art Save Them?
An International Art Exhibition
(November 7 through January 8, 2021)
BIO
Tharanga Goonetilleke is a visual artist and a Juilliard trained Opera singer. She is a native of Sri Lanka. Tharanga has been drawing and painting ever since she was a child, taking after her mother who is a visual artist herself. In the recent years her work has been shown in New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City and in Bayonne. In 2017, She won third place for water color and Ink category organized by the Art Circle of Bayonne. This year she received an Honorable Mention in the Global Warming International Online Art Competition. Her visual arts career highlights have been 'Her Space Time" series of portraits of women in science commissioned by Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo Canada, Illustrations for soon to be published "Love and Dreams" book of poetry by Andrew Nemr and solo exhibition at The Bridge Art Gallery in Bayonne, New Jersey in 2019. Tharanga continues to have a singing career as well as one in the visual arts with hope of collaborating disciplines and with the intention of breaking boundaries, labels and stereotypes. Tharanga was named a TED Fellow since 2015. In 2020 Tharanga was given an Honorable mention by Art Impact International, for her piece "The Last Chance" and currently she is showing her work at IECC Jersey city in a two women show which runs through November 2020.
STATEMENT
My artwork in generally fall under two obvious categories fo line drawings and canvas paintings. Here I have submitted some drawing that bring attention to endangers species of animals; a series I began in 2017 and is ongoing. The primary use of black and white and the very selective use of pops of color I believe in this case calls for the attention and awareness these beautiful creatures begs during theses troubled times.
Tharanga Goonetilleke
United States of America