The Barefoot Gallery Colombo is a platform for artists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers. It began as the Colombo Gallery in 1966 in a building designed for Barbara Sansoni by architect Ulrik Plesner. That space closed in the early 1970s. The gallery space and adjoining courtyard are used in a variety of ways: exhibitions by local and visiting artists and photographers, workshops, concerts, poetry readings, film nights, and theatre. Nazreen Sansoni reopened our doors in 1991 as “Gallery 706 Colombo”. A salon-type atmosphere prevailed, and Gallery 706 hosted several exhibitions in the 90s by artists such as Anoli Perera, Anoma Wijewardene, Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Jagath Weerasinghe, Kushan Majusri & Muhanned Cader. Three notable exhibitions were a retrospective by George Classen in 1993, an exhibition of works on paper by Ivan Peries and photographs by Lionel Wendt in 1996. They were all members of the ’43 Group, which was founded by Lionel Wendt in 1943. In 1999, the gallery was further expanded, and it moved into a new building, and the name was changed to Barefoot Gallery Colombo. Artists that came on board and exhibited regularly with us are Alex Stewart, Barbara Sansoni, Channa Ekenayake, Druvinka Madawela, Josephine Balakrishnan, Laki Senanayake, Mahen Chanmugum, Nelun Harasgama, Neville Weeraratne, Sybil Keyt, Padrig Morin, Sanath Herath & Shehan Madawela.
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