TILAK SAMARAWICKREMA

Tilak Samarawickrema (b. 1943, Colombo; lives and works in Colombo) is a Sri Lankan architect with a diverse and multifaceted background in art, textile design, animated cinema, and architecture. His artistic practice draws deeply from folk and traditional crafts, reinterpreting these influences through a lens of geometry, color, and form.

Samarawickrema holds a Master's degree in Architecture from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

In 1986–87, he worked as an ILO consultant to the National Design Center of Sri Lanka, where he played a key role in revitalizing and modernizing the country’s indigenous crafts. Since the late 1980s, he has designed cotton tapestries handwoven by traditional weavers from Talagune Uda Dumbara, the oldest weaving village on the island. 

Samarawickrema’s passion for textiles has led him to work internationally as a consultant. In 1990, he collaborated with Mayan Indian weavers in Guatemala through UNICEF to design marketable products for worldwide distribution. He has also worked as a consultant for the International Executive Service Corps (IESC) on a U.S. AID-funded project to establish a Design Center for carpet weaving in Kabul in Afghanistan in 2010. 

His work has been showcased in Bikaner House, Delhi (2024), the Deutsches Textilmuseum Krefeld (1995),  Galerie Smend, Cologne (1994), Design Centre, Brussels (1994),  Norsk Form (the Architecture and Design Museum, Oslo, 1998), the 9th International Triennale, Grenchen (1982), Rizzoli Gallery, New York (1980), and the 12th São Paulo Biennale (1973). Additionally, his tapestries were sold by the MOMA Design Store in New York for nearly eight years.