Vinoja Tharmalingam was born in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka (1991). She holds a BA in Fine Arts from Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies of the Eastern University, Batticaloa, where she was a lecturer in the Department of Visual and Technological Arts. She currently attends Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Pakistan. She is an active member of Artists for Nonviolent Living Collective, which exhibits widely in Sri Lanka, and seeks to engage local audiences and those affected by the war. Vinoja is determined to bring out the stories of those who are most impacted and marginalized, strongly believing in the healing and transformative powers of artistic process and community.
Vinoja’s trajectory as an artist is shaped by internal displacement and forced migration since childhood. Her textile art, drawings, and installations examine how sites and material archives convey experiences of loss, forced abandonment and shattered realities, especially during the final chapter of the civil war in Sri Lanka’s North East and its prolonged aftermath.
Vinoja’s recent exhibitions include Anatomy of Remembrances | நினைவுகளின் உடற்கூறியல், Experimenter, Kolkata, India (2023); Language is Migrant, Colomboscope, Colombo, and Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi (2022); Exploring identities and histories: Looking at Ourselves, Future of Peace, Kilinochchi and Jaffna, Sri Lanka (2021); A Timeless Heritage, Tolworth Recreation Centre, Fuller’s Way North, United Kingdom (2020); Differently able, Non-Violent Living Artist Group and OBR, Batticaloa, Kilinochchi and the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka (2017-20); Expressing Post War Struggles through Painting, SVIAS, Eastern University, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka (2017).