Anoma Wijewardene

Wijewardene is the elder daughter of the late veteran Sri Lankan inventor, Ray Wijewardene.[2] He represented Sri Lanka at the 1968 Summer Olympics in sailing.[3][4] She has two young sisters, Roshni and Mandy.

She spent most of her early life overseas. She left Sri Lanka to attend school in India at age 16 and went to Art College in England to graduate in art and design from Central Saint Martins College.

Wijewardene studied and worked in the UK for thirty years as a designer and artist.[5]

She held solo and group exhibitions in Colombo, London, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Singapore.[6][7] She created solo exhibitions in Gallery stores including Wright and Teague in London, The One and Only in Maldives, Stellar Downer Gallery in Sydney, Gallery Taksu in Kuala Lumpur, Art Heritage in New Delhi, Paradise Road Gallery and Barefoot Gallery in Sri Lanka.

She worked with Sri Lankan poet, Ramya Jirasinghe on notable exhibitions including Deliverance in 2012 and EarthLines in 2016.[8] Her first major solo exhibition was Quest in 2006.[9] A trilingual exhibition, Quest featured the use of digital technology as a medium, as well as video installation. The primary source material for the exhibition were photographs that were taken in Jaffna, Colombo, along the A9 highway which connects the city of Kandy with Jaffna, and in tsunami-affected areas in the south of Sri Lanka. These places locate the artist's philosophical journey: the quest for peace.[10]

Her paintings of fashion designers such as Yves St Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren appeared in international publications including Vogue.[11]

Wijewardene was among one of four South Asian representatives including artists from India and Pakistan to take part at an exhibition entitled, In the Fore in 2009 which was held at The Noble Sage Art Gallery in North London. She contributed eight works on the theme of Power.[12] The exhibition also included the works of the veteran Sri Lankan artist, Jagath Weerasinghe.[13]