Sharmini Pereira

Biography

Sharmini Pereira is a Sri Lankan art historian and curator with more than three decades of experience specialising in modern and contemporary South Asian art. She is Chief Curator of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka, where she leads the institution's curatorial vision and strategic development. She is also the founder and director of Raking Leaves, an award-winning non-profit publishing organisation that commissions artist-led book projects, and co-founder of the Sri Lanka Archive of Contemporary Art, Architecture and Design, a public archive based in Jaffna.

Pereira has worked extensively as an independent curator, co-curating the inaugural Singapore Biennale (2006) and serving as Guest Curator for major international initiatives, including the Abraaj Capital Art Prize (2010), the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2014), and the Dhaka Art Summit (2018). She previously served as Chief Curator of Collections at the Lionel Wendt Memorial Trust in Colombo, where she led the cataloguing and digitisation of the institution's collections.

An accomplished writer and speaker, Pereira has published extensively on contemporary Asian art in Mousse Magazine, Art Asia Pacific, Guggenheim Online, Southeast of Now, and Groundviews, among other publications. She has presented at leading international institutions, including the Guggenheim, Cornell University, and the Seattle Art Museum.

She holds master’s degrees with distinction in Art History from the University of Edinburgh and Curatorial Studies from the Royal College of Art, London. She served as a Trustee of Book Works, London (2005–2010), and currently sits on the Advisory Council for Arts and Culture at Asia Society India and the International Council of the Center for Book Arts, New York. Born in 1970, she lives and works in Sri Lanka.

Sharmini Pereira, Chief Curator, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka, has been awarded by the Getty Foundation (Los Angeles, USA).