Kala Pola Open-Air Art Fair
Kala Pola is Colombo's one day open air art fair. Every February, hundreds of Sri Lankan artists line Green Path with paintings, sculpture and quick portraits.
Kala Pola, "the art market", is the biggest public art event in Sri Lanka. For one Sunday each February, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha in Colombo 7, better known as Green Path, turns into a long open air gallery, with hundreds of artists showing their work along the pavement and the railings beside Viharamahadevi Park.
The fair was started in 1993 by the George Keyt Foundation, named after one of Sri Lanka's best known modern painters, to give artists a place to show and sell their work directly to the public, without a gallery in between. The John Keells Group has supported it since 1994, and it has run almost every year since.
You will find everything from oil paintings and watercolours of village life and the hill country to sculpture, woodcarving, batik, ceramics and cartoons. Many artists are self taught or from small towns far from Colombo, and for some it is their main sale of the year. Portrait and caricature artists set up stools and will draw you on the spot.
Entry is free, and you buy straight from the artists, so prices are often fair and some bargaining is normal. Go in the morning, before the heat and the biggest crowds. The Colombo National Museum is a few minutes' walk away if you want to make a day of it.
George Keyt, whose foundation began the fair, was one of the founders of the '43 Group, the circle of artists who brought modern art to Sri Lanka in the 1940s, and he died in 1993, the year the first Kala Pola was held. The fair carries on his belief that art should be open to everyone, not only to people who walk into galleries.
If you're thinking of buying, bring cash and walk the full length of the street before you decide, since some of the best work is tucked away further along. Most artists are happy to talk about their pieces and how they made them. Parking around Green Path is limited on the day, so a tuk tuk is the easiest way to get there.
At a glance
- When: Usually in February
- Duration: 1 day (a Sunday in February)
- Venue: Green Path (Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha), Colombo 7
- Organizer: George Keyt Foundation, with the John Keells Group
- Entry: Free