Manjula Atukorala
Printmaker / Australia
ABOUT
Manjula Atukorala is a printmaker who works with lithographs, woodcut, linocut and dry-point etching.
She was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Melbourne, Australia in 2013. She was the fourth child born to a traditional Buddhist Sri Lankan Family. Now,she is a wife and mother to two lovely boys.
She graduated from Bachelor of Arts, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1999. And she graduated from Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts - Drawing and Print Making), University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in 2019.
She joined Global Artists Committee of Asian Art Association in 2020.
Statement
As a child of 10, I remember myself painting raw cloth that was used to sew cushion covers with white wall paint and turning them to a canvass to paint with oils which were gifted to me.
My childhood dream of studying at art school and to become an artist became a reality in 2017 when I got the opportunity to study for three years at the most prestigious art school in Australia, the Victorian College of the Arts, of the University of Melbourne.
At art school I explored my interests in domesticity, nature and still life which I was drawn to by the influence of the great artists of the 19th century. The works of Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt and my Sri Lankan culture cultivated in me the interests of drawing, painting and printmaking.
In my work I depict moments which are of the present that with time becomes a past memory looking back from a future time. The memory to me unfolds a narrative of who and what we are as people.
Exhibitions
2020 – The Lester Prize, Perth, Australia in Portraiture, Semi-Finalist
2020 - ‘Editions 2020’ Tacit Galleries, Melbourne, Australia - annual print exhibition
2020 - Finalist for the Inaugural Jocelyn Smith Annual Philosophy Art Prize, 2020, Bay Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2019 - Graduate Exhibition, University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA)
2019 - “Circular”, End of Year Summer Show, Blak Dot Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2019 – Toys r us, Group Show, Second Space Projects, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia
2018 – Second Year Undergraduate Exhibition, University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA)
2016 - Solo Exhibition of prints, “Way down the river” Gallery 5, Centre for Adult Education (CAE), Melbourne, Australia
