A portfolio is a group of works created by you, the artist, which feature at the top of your profile.
FUTURE EXHIBITIONS
• 6th International Kyoto Hanga 2012 Print Exhibition. Kyoto City Museum of Art, Japan 31st July-12th August 2012
• About Paper. Library Institute, New Haven. USA.15th November-17th December 2012
• LOOP 2012. Bankside Gallery. 6th-11th November 2012
• NinePrintMakers. Riverside Studios, London. 19th November-9th December 2012.
• Everyday Encounters. The William Morris Gallery, London. 13th October-23rd December 2012
• RE OPEN. Artist Talk-Artist Books & Prints. Bankside Gallery, London 26th August 2012
• Surrey Artists Open Studios. Ochreprint Studios, Guildford. 16th/17th & 24th/25th June 2012
• Turn, Turn, Turn... Margate Gallery. Margate. 25th May-10th June
• RE Annual Exhibition. Bankside Gallery, London. 11th May-10th June 2012
• Printathon-ELP Annual Exhibtion. Smokehouse, London. 7th June-1st July 2012
• Turn The Page.The Forum, Norwich. 4th & 5th May 2012
• Glasgow International Artist Bookfair. Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow. 28th-29th April
• London Original Print Fair. The Royal Academy. London. 19th-22nd April 2012
• The Sketchbook Project. Brooklyn Art Library. USA 14th – 30th April 2012
• Spring at Smokehouse. Forman's Smokehouse Gallery, London 5th-29th April 2012
• Lost For Words. UCH Gallery. University College Hospital, London. 29th March-2nd May 2012
• Interventions. Platt Hall-Gallery of Costume. Manchester 13th January-19th May 2012
• Designer Crafts at the Mall. Mall Galleries, London. 6th-15th January 2012
• International Print Triennial. Galerie 96, Prijedor, Bosnia & Herzegovina. 9th Dec-14th Jan’12.
• 3rd Qijang International Print Festival. Qijang, SW China. Nov/December 2011
• Mini Picture Show. Bankside Gallery. 48 Hopton Street, London. 25th Nov-22nd January 2012
• NinePrintMakers. Riverside Studios Gallery. Hammersmith, London. 21st Nov-10th Dec 2011
• PMC at the Highgate Gallery. Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution18th Nov-1st December ‘11
• Pushing Print. Margate Gallery & Pie Factory Gallery. Margate 8th-29th October 2011
• International Print Biennale 2011- Drawing with Fire. Gateshead, Newcastle. 17th Sept-19th Nov
• Bookmarks IX. Infiltrating the Library Systems. UK, USA etc. September 2011-February 2012
• Small Print Big Impression. mac [Midlands Art Centre], Birmingham. 22nd October-4th December
• The Sunderland Book Project. The Arts Centre, Washington. 3rd September-5th November 2011
• Small Print Big Impression. Gallery Top, Derbyshire. 3rd September-9th October
• The Fishwick Papers. Smokehouse Gallery. London. 2nd September-3rd October 2011
• A4 Open Print Competition. UK Poly Arts Centre, Falmouth, Cornwall. 28th Aug-12th Sept 2011
• Society Of Bookbinders Conference & Competition. Warwick University 25th-28th August 2011
• The Sketchbook Project. The Full Sail University, Winter Park, Fl. USA. 29th-30th July 2011
• The Sketchbook Project. The Hyde Park Art Centre, Chicago. 14th-17th July 2011
• Small Print Big Impression. Rufford Craft Centre, Nottinghamshire. 24th July 28th August
• Bite. The Mall Galleries. 24th August-3rd September 2011
• RE Summer Exhibition. Bankside Gallery, London. 29th July-31st August 2011
SELECTED CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
• Untitled. Vyner Street Gallery. London. 4-10th July
• The Sketchbook Project. The Madrone Studios. San Francisco. 16th-18th June
• SAOS 2011. The Ochre Print Studio.18/19th & 25/26th June
• Ochre Print Studio Artists. The New Ashgate Gallery. 9th June -10th July.
• 1st International Printmaking Triennial of ULUS. Art Pavilion Belgrade. 1st - 30th June 2011
• ELP Annual Exhibition. Space, The Triangle, Mare Street, London. 8th -11th July
• 1st Internat. Biennial of Engraving-Santos 2011. Pinacoteca Calixto, SP, Brasil. 5th May-5th June
• Rootstein Hopkins Foundation Drawing Exhibition. Morley Gallery, London. 11th May-11th June
-1st Prize Awarded for Drawing for Design.
• Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Annual Exhibn. Bankside Gallery, London. 28thApr-4thJune
• LOOP 2011. Bankside Gallery. London. 19th-25th April 2011
• The London Original Print Fair. The Royal Academy of Art. London 19th-21st April 2011
• Printmakers Council Show. Acquire Arts Gallery. London. 14th-20th April 2011
• Dreams. Freud Museum, London. 2nd March-10th April 2011
• Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition.The Mall Galleries. 2nd -12thMarch 2011
• The Sketchbook Project.
-The Brooklyn Art Library. Brooklyn, New York 19th-27th February 2011
-The Space Gallery, Portland ME. USA 30th March-2nd April 2011
-The Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas. USA. 12th March 2011
• Artists’ Book Exhibition. Cardiff Central Library. 1-31st March 2011
• Small Print Big Impression. New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester. 5th Feb-2nd May 2011
• Wharepuke Print Gallery. Bay of Islands New Zealand. March 2011
• At A Tangent. Oldham Gallery, Old Cultural Quarter, Oldham 22nd January- 10th April
• Printed Matter: Follow-ed (after Hokusai).
-Winchester School of Art. 24th Jan-10th March
-Gallery P74, Prushnikova, Ljubljana, Slovenia 11th March-3rd April 2011
24 SELECTED ARTIST BOOKS HELD IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS.
1. TO BARE OR NOT TO BARE The contradictory needs of revelation and concealment of parts of the body, by its adherence to the seductive principle of dress, are explored within the female form via a male gaze. This book unfolds multiple narratives of Topless Garments, through various temporal and cultural perspectives, dependent on size, shape and style.
2. aGAINST tHE gRAIN The defiance of convention in dress and book design is used to explore the male issue of clothing through a female gaze. The transience and permanence of material and style (fashion, fads & foibles) is illustrated in the ephemeral methods of instruction and construction of clothing via the media.
3. OUTSIDE INA book of blank pages that has to be undressed to reveal a boustrophedon reading of the direction, technological progress to construct and reproduce the human body is taking. Is it forwards or backwards?
4. OBSCURE Etymologically the words shoe and obscure share a link, an ironic reference to the functionality of footwear. The sensibilities of adorning tools of torture (from poulaines to pattens, through winklepickers to stilettos) that inflict permanent deformities on our weight bearing extremities are questioned. Is escape from this vicious cycle/circus possible?
5. 10 to 20 SIZING UP THE OPPOSITION A Book and CD-ROM featuring an enquiry into sizing ourselves in response to the conflicting messages issued by the manipulators of dress style, the media and fashion industry. Do humans cut the cloth to fit their bodies or tailor their bodies to fit the clothing?
6. CAST OFFSA book of photo-etched images depicting aspects of knitting, taken from archival records and my own knitting paraphernalia. The row by row construction of patterns in knitwear is similar to the way that letters, words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters form the semantics in books. Stopping at an inappropriate place, to resume later, can affect the smooth continuity of both processes and markers help to pick up the threads. Selected image fragments have been taken for the Bookmarks III project, to address how selection of detail results in loss of context. (touring exhibition -The Sitting Room, UK, Europe, USA & Mexico)
7. TO WHAT LENGTHS DO WOMEN/WE MEN GO TO?A white scroll of embossed images featuring dressmaking patterns published in 19th century mens fashion magazines and the interactive gaze between the two sexes. Text as perforations and elements of sewing as hidden watermarks requires light to ease the reading.
8. CLOTHES ENCOUNTERS All human cultures adorn their bodies with clothes. This marks the boundary between the private and public space, which forms a personal habitus. Constantly we are informed as to how and what to wear by seen and unseen forces. The readymade tailored garments beg us to slip into predetermined sizes irrespective of the genetic makeup that has designed our body shapes and sizes. The amount of skin/flesh that maybe revealed or concealed shifts through temporal and cultural perspectives, again dictating what form of clothing is acceptable. This book explores the social currency that clothes hold in establishing the dialogue between the wearer and viewer. Etched images of mannequins unfold against a backdrop of embossed dress patterns and stitch related words rendering a tactile reading. Stitched words are unpicked and the memory is left behind (perforations made by the needle marks allow light to filter through to give another narrative). There are multiple readings throughout the book as exists within the hieroglyphics that evolve within encounters with clothes. (4.5m long book exhibited in a touring show of the UK titled: art of the STITCH and the Wrexham Print International. Variations on the theme also shown in the 5th International Columbia Book & Paper Arts Triennial, Chicago; The Knitting and Stitching Show: touring NEC Birmingham /Alexandra Palace, London/RDS, Dublin/Harrogate International Centre ).
9. THE COUNTESS AND THE HOUSEWIFE1A book that attempts to blur the boundaries between the superstar status of fine art and the low profile of craft, while also comparing the hierarchy within the crafts.1.housewife : a small sewing kit issued to soldiers.
10. THE GLASS CEILING A book constructed in glass reflecting on the gender disparity and discrimination within the workplace.
11. PERCEPTIONA series of books that explore the varying perceptions that individuals have of reading the same material. Originally designed for the perception of deafblindness, variations on this theme forms a multipart interactive set of books that is completed by multiple readers. [Exhibited at the 7th Helen Keller International Award, PMC show, Tactile at Otter Gallery, University of Chichester]
12. READINGThe reader is invited to read between the lines of a set of his and hers pillowbooks that addressed the gender disparity in the recognition of scientific and medical achievements, while reflecting on different cultural references. (Designed for a Public Art Exhibition in the bedding department of John Lewis to celebrate Black History month).
13. PLEATS DID NOT PLEASE MEAn abstract reflection on the gendered disparate elements of school uniforms in Sri Lanka. Girls wore white starched pressed pleated dresses while boys wore coloured separates, shorts and shirts.
14. TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTIONReflects on the dialogue between the shop window mannequin and the flaneur.
15. A TALE OF A DOBEAn enquiry into how pets are tailored and manipulated to satisfy human requirements and specifications. This book lays out Dobermann Pinscher Breed Standards and questions what is acceptable through different temporal and cultural frameworks. Docking dogs tails and cropping their ears are prohibited in certain countries. The breeding of an albino dobe resulted in the weakening of the species and the untimely death due to disease. The book consists of nine loose pages, the control of the sequence and the layout is handed to the reader. [Exhibited at the Vestry House Museum and Tactile, Otter Gallery,Univ. of Chichester]
16. THROUGH THE PINHOLEPresented in the style of a Victorian Box Camera, this book contains a series of vintage photo backs, signifying the status of the sitter and the studio. The book reflects nostalgically on the era of the staged photo, which has now been replaced by the instant & constant snapping of mobile phones.
17. THE POCKET DIARYThis altered book examines the neologisms that are absorbed into the fabric of language, as George and Weedon Grossmiths Diary of a Nobody is converted into an abridged, illustrated quick read.
18. MARGINALIA - FLTMarginalia pays homage to Fermats Last Theorem, one of the most significant notes made on the margin of any book,. This 10-page book, with an uncoated margin running along its cover, is held together by a single brass screw post and may be either flipped or splayed.
19. BOOKMARXSThis collection of bookmarks explore how Marxist ideology is dissipated throughout academic literature. Detailing over 100 various editions of Marxs writings, the reader is asked to question how much of Marxs works, outside of the famous few (The Communist Manifesto, Das Capital, for example) actually impact on modern social discourses.
20. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOXA puzzle to test lateral thinking, is blind embossed on sixteen pages. The narrative unfolds the reading mechanics of artist books.
21. TURN THE PAGEExplores issues around the page turn in music manuscripts: disruption, additive percussive elements, acoustics, copyrights etc.(includes an audio recording of page turns between different publishers, editions etc). [exhibited at the BOOK TO BOOK Leeds Art Gallery]
22. THE CARBON FOOTPRINTFootprints collected from global citizens (animate/inanimate) from all the continents to reflect on environmental issues (Climate Change exhibition at CarbonArt City Hall, Mayors Office, London; Art Fellowship Challenge Exhibition)
23. BUILDING BLOCKSAn etched, embossed, stitched and laser cut book, employing the laser beam as drawing tool manually controlled randomly over the turned page. A reflection on the space in architecture and its social consequences. Embossed and stitched pages. (Melville Charitable Trust Award (1st prize) at SHELTER, Massachusetts, USA, touring till 2009; Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artist Book Award. NSW, Australia August 2009; also shown in the 5th International Columbia Book & Paper Arts Triennial, Chicag; The Knitting and Stitching Show: touring NEC Birmingham /Alexandra Palace, London/RDS, Dublin/Harrogate International Centre; Yunnan Print International, China )
24. WHAT GOES AROUND MUST COME AROUNDThe cyclical nature of fashioning the body silhouette over the ages.
Tate Britain : 1,2,3,5,11 & 20
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery : 1
PrintROOM Rotterdam : 3 & 4
Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London : 1 & 9
Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collection : 1 & 11
Yale Centre for British Art : 16 & 20
Southern Cross University Artist Book Collection, NSW, Australia : 23
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS WERE TAKEN BY SUMI PERERA 2006 … Read More