Joya: AiR / Shayna Fonseka / GBR
photo Simon Beckmann
‘Joya: AiR was a creative sanctuary. Being away from the hustle and bustle of daily life helped me gain perspective on many aspects of my artistic practice. The experience has been invaluable & provided me with the clarity needed to let ideas flourish. I engaged in stimulating conversations with fellow residents and was given the time & space to be productive in a non pressured environment.
During my time at Joya: AiR, I experimented with plans for a new body of work. Having finished a series of paintings before coming to the residency, I was at a creative crossroads.
The colours, forms and atmosphere of the desert have all influenced my work. I have brought back pigments, drawings & new ideas to my studio life in London. I now feel ready and prepared to begin a new series of paintings.
I feel honoured to be part of the Joya: AiR community and am so grateful to Donna & Simon.
I didn't recognise how much I needed Joya: AiR until I arrived. My only regret has been not staying there longer’!
Shayna Fonseka
Shayna Fonseka (b. 1994, London) lives and works in London. She received a BFA from Slade School of Art in 2017. Fonseka’s work is influenced by the urban and industrial landscape and explores a sense of place, displacement and placelessness. Her process involves taking photographs of deserted city squares and found objects in the urban environment during long walks, which she then transforms through various image layering techniques, digital studies and painting. Fonseka’s work expresses various emotional states through the use of vivid colour, texture, warping and shadow, to create a terrain that extends beyond the physical realm, into a hidden, more personal and mysterious one. In her work, highly textured surfaces contrast with defined forms to produce a flattened, distorted perspective. Patterns are duplicated and subject matter may appear familiar but displaced. The paintings reveal a profound approach to our everyday environment while investigating the tensions between our inner and outer selves.