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Art
auction with a cause offers unique opportunity
For
the first time in Sri Lanka, contemporary artists will
use an auction to sell their work and to promote the
environment.
Artists Channa Ekanayake and Prageeth Manohansa will
showcase some of their best pieces, offer these at low
starting prices and sell to the highest bidder. For
each work sold, they will plant a tree.
At the auction on Sunday the March 15, at the kOOii
Gallery in Hokandara, art lovers will be invited to
bid on their favourite art work. The process of bidding
is silent. No hammers, no public squabble but instead
buyers will make an offer on paper, either in person
at the gallery or by telephone or email. The auction
will close at midnight on Saturday March 23, after which
the artwork will be sold to the highest bidder.
All works at the exhibition will have the same starting
price: 15.000 LKR. The smallest, simplest work by each
artists is normally sold for 25.000 LKR while prices
for larger pieces can reach 90.000 LKR or more.
“This is a one-off opportunity. Only at this exhibition
can people buy work by these artists for a price that
they think they can afford and have a tree planted in
their name. After this auction is over, all work will
be sold at its usual price,” says Mieke Kooistra
of kOOii artist support.
The idea to hold the auction comes from participating
artist Prageeth Manohansa. “I was thinking of an
original, new idea to connect with art enthusiasts.
I would like a large number of people to get familiar
with the work I make. An auction brings people together
and offers an exciting opportunity to buy work at reduced
prices”.
The auction will be linked to kOOii ‘s vision that
art and artists can contribute to the social design
of the future and that ecological and environmental
issues should be a part of this design. Artists such
as Ekanayake and Manohansa are both concerned with the
impact the environmental destruction has on everybody’s
lives. Channa Ekanayake’s paintings are about the
tranquility of traditional village life, where resources
are used rather than abused. He is a known conservationist
and has advised kOOii on the type of indigenous plants
and trees that should be planted. Manohansa recycles
junk and used car parts, which are broadly considered
useless, into sculptures which are traditionally objects
of beauty.
For many years, Channa Ekanayake and Prageeth Manohansa
have been getting commissions from art enthusiasts in
Sri Lanka and abroad. They took part in many international
art events and both were invited to participate in the
Asian Art Biennale in Bangladesh. This is the first
time however, that their art will be auctioned off.
Organisers hope that the auction will stimulate an appreciation
for the arts and at the same time raise some form of
awareness about waste and consumption and how the process
of environmental decline can be turned around.
Auction
facts:
The
auction starts on Sunday March 15, at 4 p.m. at the
kOOii Gallery and closes at midnight on 17 March.
Preview of work on Saturday March 14, at the kOOii Gallery
Preview online from March 12, at http://kooiiart.blogspot.com
Bidding starts at 15.000 LKR for all available works.
Each new bid should increment with 1,500 LKR or a multiple
of this amount.
All bidding is done silently and in private. Updates
on bids will be made public via the internet (http://kooiiart.blogspot.com)
and/or by email to bidders directly offering the opportunity
for buyers to increase their bid.
The artwork will be sold to the highest bidder on the
March 22.
For each artwork sold, kOOii will donate a tree to be
planted around the Talangama tank which is the last
wildlife refuge on the outskirts of Colombo
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