Hema Shironi (b. 1991, Kandy) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives in Colombo. Her wide-ranging artistic practice combines embroidery, mythological imagery, bricolage, and installation to inquire concepts of cultural identity. Her work is deeply rooted in observance of the history of colonization, civil war, displacement and migration, which she highlights through personal stories and experiences of living in Sri Lanka. As a child, her family often moved from one place to another and she eventually found herself questioning the bonds that communities and individuals make. Her work is driven by the nostalgia of the numerous places she has called home and how each community belonging to those places grapples with concerns of language, culture, memory, myth, gender, and equality.
Shironi completed her MFA at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore (2019) and her BFA from the Ramanathan Fine Arts Academy, University of Jaffna (2014).
Shironi’s 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 has also participated in an Artist Residency at House of Kal, Sri Lanka (2021).