The Phoenix Art Museum is making more room for Sri Lankan art thanks to a major donation from Dr. Sukumar Nagendran. The Arizona-based physician, biotechnology executive, and philanthropist, has donated $5 million to the museum to create a gallery dedicated to art from Sri Lanka and South Asia.
The gift will establish the Nagendran Gallery for the Art of Sri Lanka and South Asia and help expand the museum’s larger Art of Asia Wing to more than 9,500 square feet. The generous donation will also support much more than just a new gallery space. It will help fund future acquisitions, exhibitions, research, artist residencies, international partnerships, and public programming focused on both historical and contemporary Sri Lankan and South Asian art.
Phoenix Art Museum has been building its collection of Asian art for decades, and Sri Lankan works already have a strong presence within it. The museum’s holdings include Buddhist sculptures, paintings, illustrated palm leaf manuscripts, photographs, and other objects that span different periods of the country’s history.
Many of those works come from the Fernando Family Collection, developed through the museum’s longtime relationship with collectors Dr. Coleene Fernando and Dr. Barry Fernando and the late Quintus Fernando, PhD. Nagendran hopes his gift will help bring even more attention to Sri Lanka’s artistic traditions and contemporary artists. “Through this gift, I have the opportunity to build a partnership that explores and celebrates historical and contemporary Sri Lankan art on a global scale,” he says.
The new gallery will open on November 13, 2026, with Pala Pothupitiye: Mapping a Sri Lankan Consciousness. The exhibition focuses on contemporary Sri Lankan artist Pala Pothupitiye, whose work draws from maps, mythology, ritual traditions, colonial history, and modern conflict.
Pothupitiye’s paintings will appear alongside historical manuscripts and sculptures from the museum’s collection, as well as photographs by Quintus Fernando. Bringing these works together will give visitors a chance to see how contemporary artists are responding to Sri Lanka’s history while also creating something entirely their own.
The gift also gives Phoenix Art Museum more room to grow its Sri Lankan collection in the years ahead. Future exhibitions and collaborations will bring together artists, scholars, collectors, and members of the Sri Lankan diaspora.
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Source: Phoenix Art Museum Establishes Major Initiative Dedicated to Advancing the Exhibition and Scholarship of Historical and Contemporary Sri Lankan Art
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