April 2012 For immediate release

Paradise Lost and found at Leeds Metropolitan Artistic ideals of Sri Lankas tropical beauty and memories marking the horrors of the islands civil war collide in a new exhibition opening at Leeds Metropolitan University on Friday April 13.

The stunning 12 piece art show - Paradise Lost, is open to the public at the Universitys Broadcasting Place until April 26 and is the handiwork of PhD student Priyantha Udagedara.

The Sri Lankan born 37-year-old, whose childhood was blighted by his countrys civil unrest, was a professional artist before he came to the UK in 2006 to study a Masters in painting at Leeds Metropolitan. There are two versions of Sri Lanka the one where people see it as the beautiful place that it is, and the Sri Lanka that was war torn where the paradise was lost, said Priyantha. This is what my paintings represent.

The collection is the second series of paintings to be exhibited under the theme of Paradise Lost, the first of which was displayed in the Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2010. It was supposed to be an 18 piece exhibition, comments Priyantha. But in the end it included 17 paintings the gallery didnt exhibit the eighteenth piece. Because of what my work represents, it is considered as controversial in Sri Lanka.

He added that some of the paintings in the new series of Paradise Lost focus on an architectural style. I have included actual photos of Sri Lankan buildings that were destroyed during the war in the collages of my paintings, said Priyantha. I also included pieces of bandages sourced from a hospital in Sri Lanka. Priyantha hopes to complete his PhD, entitled Rediscovering Paradise painting, representing and revision of identities, at Leeds Metropolitan later this year. He acknowledged that at first glance the beauty within the exhibition paintings in the form of flowers and butterflies stand out to the viewer above the horror. The latter is symbolised in the form of discreet images of barbed wire and body parts. My art is a new form of landscape, one which exemplifies terror and beauty in one place, he said. The viewer takes in a false sense of beauty before the revelation of the displaced sense of agonising beauty.

Priyantha has exhibited his work in both the UK and Sri Lanka, as well as in numerous international venues including The Cross Art Project in Sydney and the Lalith Kala Academy Gallery New Delhi. Following the exhibition at Leeds Metropolitan University, the Paradise Lost series will also be exhibited in London gallery.

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For further details please contact Julia Williams in the Communications team at Leeds Met on 0113 8125978 or email j.t.williams@leedsmet.ac.uk

Notes for editors: Leeds Metropolitan University has over 25,000 students and around 3, 000 staff.

The Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University is Professor Susan Price and the Chair of the Board is Lord Woolmer of Leeds. Leeds Metropolitans four faculties are: Arts, Environment and Technology, Business & Law, Health and Social Sciences, and Carnegie.

Leeds Metropolitans heritage can be traced back to the founding of the Mechanics Institute in Leeds in 1824. International students rated the University top in the UK for language support, accommodation quality and learning spaces in the 2010 Autumn Wave of the International Student Barometer and sixth in the world for the quality of its lectures. We have over 1,500 international students from 122 countries around the globe.

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Broadcasting Place, which was voted the best tall building in the world in 2010 by the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) and also winner of the 2010 Leeds Architecture Awards New Building category.