Artist and educator Shanaanthanan is known as one of the prominent and influential contemporary artists of the country. He was born in Jaffna and pursued education in art and holds Bachelors and Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Delhi and a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Shanaathanan’s work has been exhibited widely in Sri Lanka and as well as at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Vancouver; Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane; Museum of Ethnology, Vienna; Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Art History, Department of Fine Arts, Jaffna University and advisor on Sri Lanka’s national curriculum for teaching art in schools. His artist books include The One Year Drawing Project, The Incomplete Thombu, and A–Z of Conflict (forthcoming). Shanaathanan is also the co-founder of the Sri Lanka Archive of Contemporary Art, Architecture, and Design (SLAAD); the first archive of its kind in the country and an important resource of books and printed matter on contemporary Sri Lankan visual art and theory.