Hema Shironi

Hema Shironi (b. 1991, Kandy) is a multidisciplinary artist. Her wide-ranging artistic practice combines embroidery, mythological imagery, bricolage, and installation to explore concepts of cultural identity. Her work is deeply rooted in an engagement with the history of colonization, civil war, displacement, and migration, which she highlights through personal stories and lived experiences in Sri Lanka. 

As a child, her family frequently moved from one place to another, eventually prompting her to question the bonds that individuals and community’s form. Her work is driven by a deep nostalgia for the many places she has called home, and by an interest in how the communities in those places grapple with issues of language, culture, memory, myth, gender, and equality.

Shironi completed her MFA at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore (2019), and her BFA at the Ramanathan Fine Arts Academy, University of Jaffna (2014). 

Her work has been featured at the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2024); the 13th Taipei Biennial: Small World, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei (2024); Delhi Contemporary Art Week, New Delhi (2024); Art Mumbai, Mumbai (2024); Critical Zones, J.D.A. Perera Gallery, Colombo (2022); and Colomboscope, Colombo (2022 and 2019). She also participated in an artist residency at House of Kal, Sri Lanka (2021).