ABOUT

Ravi GuneWardena

Ikebana Artist & Teacher

Sogetsu School of Ikebana - Los Angeles Branch

 

Ravi GuneWardena, an architect and partner at Escher GuneWardena, has been a practitioner of ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arranging) since 2005 under the tutelage of Haruko Takeichi, a Riji level master in the Sogetsu School. During his tenure as the former director of the Los Angeles Branch of the school he has facilitated collaborations with various local artists and organizations in order to expand the visibility of ikebana as a contemporary art.  Recent large-scale installations include: Pile-Up at WUHO (the Woodbury University Hollywood Outpost) Gallery (March 2018), Toward a Raw Materialism, a group exhibition with artists Patty Chang, David Kelley, Ravi GuneWardena, and Miles Coolidge, curated by Simon Leung at UC Irvine (Spring 2021), Detached Landscape, collaboration with Tory J. Lowitz for the Vessels exhibition at SIZED, Ltd., Los Angeles (February 2022) and Common Ground, an ikebana installation by Sogetsu Los Angeles in collaboration with artist Adam Silverman at JACCC (the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center) Los Angeles, (March  – April  2022). In 2023 Ravi coordinated a series of large ikebana installations for LACMA's exhibition Sam Francis and Japan: Emptiness Overflowing.  In June 2023 he participated in ikebana demonstrations and presented a lecture on the history of art collaborations at Sogetsu for Sam Francis' 100th birthday celebrations at LACMA. In Fall 2023, Ravi was invited to install a series of ikebana works in Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in Hollywood.  In April 2024 he organized an ikebana group exhibition of 45 Sogetsu LA members at the Hollyhock House.  He continues to expand the Los Angeles branch's outreach to local institutions while maintaining his practice of the ikebana art form as both a student and teacher.

 

Director, Sogetsu Ikebana Los Angeles Branch, April 2019 – April 2022

Sogetsu Teachers Diploma: 1st Grade Somu Ikebana Sensei

Ikebana Flower Name: Gyokuzan

Member, Ikebana Kyoju Kai, Ikebana Teachers Association of Southern California

Member, Sogetsu LA Men’s Group (founded by Kaz Yokou Kitajima in 2012)