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again and again... finally, the freedom to fall

Russna Kaur

January 24, 2025 - April 25, 2025

College Art Gallery

Curated by Leah Taylor

Russna Kaur draws inspiration for her bold colour palette from her surroundings, her Punjabi heritage, including her upbringing in Brampton Ontario, and the Indian wedding industry.

Top Image: Russna Kaur, What would YOU do?, 2019, acrylic, oil, latex, pastel and sawdust on canvas and wood panel, 192 x 156 in.

Side Image: Russna Kaur, In many ways, a great fall can be found in a memory, 2024, acrylic, oil stick, cut cotton, jersey and twill, sawdust and dried flower petals on canvas, 120 x 112 in.

About the Exhibition

Russna Kaur draws inspiration for her bold colour palette from her surroundings, her Punjabi heritage, including her upbringing in Brampton Ontario, and the Indian wedding industry. Utilizing multiple panels to form singular, large-scale abstract paintings, the works are evidently fragmented and yet connect through line and repeated mark-making patterns. Kaur remarks that "colour serves as a marker of energy and joy, but also as a mask for intergenerational trauma," she employs colour as an interstices to both reveal and conceal a deeper understandings of complex personal and cultural histories.

About the Artist

Russna Kaur (b. 1991, Brampton, Ontario) is a painter currently living and working in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kaur completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Waterloo (2013) and a Master of Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2019). Russna Kaur is the recipient of the Takao Tanabe Painting Prize (2020) and the IDEA Art Award (2020).

She has exhibited works nationally at institutions including the Kamloops Art Gallery (2021), Remai Modern in Saskatoon, SK (2023), Vancouver Art Gallery (2024), Audain Art Museum in Whistler, BC (2024) and internationally at Galerie Isa in Mumbai, IN (2023) and Gajah Gallery in Yogyakarta, ID (2024).

Kaur has been an artist-in-residence at the Burrard Arts Foundation (2020) in Vancouver, the Centrum Emerging Artist Residency (2020) in Port Townsend, Washington and an Independent Artist Residency in Los Angeles, California (2024). Kaur will be an artist-in-residence at an upcoming residency at the Wassaic Project in New York (2025).

Programming and Events

Opening Reception: Friday, January 24th at 6:30pm

Artist Talk/Tour: Monday, January 27th at 12:30pm – College Art Gallery 1