Jagath Weerasinghe

Jagath Weerasinghe (; born 1954) is a Sri Lankan contemporary artist and archeologist.

Weerasinghe has been a significant driving force in the development of Sri Lankan art since the early 1990s. He is Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology at the University of Kelaniya.

He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours in Painting at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka in 1981. In 1985 he received a Conservation of Wall Paintings, International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome, which was followed in 1988 by a Conservation of Rock Art from the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles.

In 1991 Weerasinghe obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the American University, Washington, D.C.

He co-founded the Theertha International Artists Collective in 2000, and served as its Chairman till 2017. Theertha continues to foster new artists and initiatives. He describes current Sri Lankan artists as living in an era of ‘para-modernism’.

Exhibitions Weerasinghe's works have been exhibited in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Netherlands, Germany and Japan. Solo exhibitions include Belief: The Promise of Absence, Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2018; Dream for Me, curated by Liz Fernando at Khoj, Delhi, India, 2018; and Decorated, Breese Little, London, UK, 2014; among others.