Nanelle Jayawardene is a British-Sri lankan painter whose work explore social presence, identity, surveillance, ritual, performance and spectacle. Initially trained as an architect at the universities of Bath and Cambridge in the UK, Jayawardene sustained a parallel artistic practice alongside her professional career as an architect and later as a project manager leading the delivery of complex building projects. Throughout this period, she developed a body of work that explored recurring concerns of space, human interaction, interrelatedness and social presence. As a new chapter unfolds following her relocation to Abu Dhabi, she has committed fully to her painting practice, alongside teaching, curation and museum projects.