Redza Piyadasa was a Malaysian artist, art critic and art historian. Piyadasa was born in 1939 in Kuantan, the capital of Pahang, in a family of Sinhalese origin. Initially he followed a study at the Malaysia Teacher's College in Brinsford Lodge to become a teacher. Afterwards, he followed an art study at the Hornsey College of Art in Crouch End, London, on the basis of a scholarship of the Malaysian government. Here he obtained his degree in 1967. Consequently, he returned to Malaysia, where he started to work as a teacher at the School for Art and Design, which shortly before was founded as a part of the Universiti Teknologi MARA.