“Entering the Cave unravels through the beguiling treachery of Arjuna Gunarathne’s astounding oeuvre as an aesthetic seduction cloaked in chromatic reverie. At first glance, the saccharine allure of his palette lures the viewer like the gentle glimmer at the mouth of an unknown grotto veiled in deceptive sweetness echoing the trompe-l'œil of safety. Yet this is no innocent dalliance as the descent is inexorable. The benign innocence of surface shadows swiftly disappears, revealing itself as a labyrinthine immersion of complex structure sutured in with a subtle chiaroscuro - à la certain precision drawn by the steady hands of a master miniature painter - wherein tenebroso, colour and figure made to coalesce in rhythmic dissonance. Arjuna’s visceral application of pigment upon many hidden layers of experimentation renders temporal verse in vivid visual meter turning his gestural impasto, his colpo di pennello into synesthetic strokes of cryptic visual poetry. His spontaneous mark-making, imbued with pathos and sprezzatura, belies a disciplined architecture of form, rhythm, and inner symbolism learnt & carefully perfected over 3 decades of meditation on his craft. If style is indeed morality, then surely his ever-evolving unique sensibility must emanate from the depths of the inner being, Each canvas reflecting truer impressions of life born out of keen observation & deeper study, as projected from the soul, cleverly & skilfully woven into form & taste. To gaze upon his work is not to merely look but to surrender, to be entrained into a liminal realm where colour becomes incantation and narrative slips into myth. Therefore, Be Warned! The viewer, once ensnared, becomes both spectator and participant in a richly orchestrated deception of the senses. Proceed, then, not with idle curiosity, but with the reverence of one entering a sacred, perilous cave of revelation.”

- SD -