Artist
Painter
Russna Kaur is an artist living and working in Vancouver but originally from Brampton. Selected solo exhibitions include at Wil Aballe Art Projects (2021); A Room With A View Gallery in Toronto (2021); Veil of Tears at Trapp Projects in Vancouver (2019); and She was there for a while… at The Fort Gallery in Langley (2019).
Selected group exhibitions include at Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art (2022); at Mónica Reyes Gallery (2021); Holding a line in your hand at Kamloops Art Gallery (2021); Keep for Old Memoirs at Young Space Spring 2020 Online, curated with Celine Mo of VICTORI+MO Gallery in New York, NY (2020); Leaning Out of Windows at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2020); and the heart is the origin of your worldview at Art Toronto with Cooper Cole (2019). In 2021, she was commissioned to create an artwork for the second instalment of the Boren Banner Series, public art initiative at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle.
Kaur is the recipient of the Takao Tanabe Painting Prize (2020) for emerging painters in British Columbia and the IDEA Art Award (2020). She was awarded the Gathie Falk Visual Arts Scholarship (2019), the University Women’s Club of Vancouver Graduate Scholarship (2017), an Audain Faculty of Art Graduate Teaching Fellowship (2018) and was shortlisted for the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship (2018). She has been an artist-in-residence at the Burrard Arts Foundation (2020) in Vancouver which concluded in a solo exhibition, Suddenly her lips sharpened – it was splendid. Kaur received the Centrum Emerging Artist Residency (2020) in Port Townsend, Washington. Her work is a part of several collections including the Audain Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery and Surrey Art Gallery. She holds an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2019), and an BA (Honours) with a studio specialization from the University of Waterloo (2013).
I am extremely excited to join the Brampton Arts Organization as an Ambassador! Growing up in the City of Brampton has had a significant influence on my painting practice and has played a vital role in shaping some of the ways in which I approach my materials and surfaces. The city is rich with a diverse range of visual information – our homes, shopping malls, restaurants, sports centres, flea markets, movie theatres, bowling alleys, libraries, parks and trails have served as a source of inspiration for my work. Peeling back the layers of our community has helped me to better understand the subtleties and complexities of identity – what we choose to reveal and conceal about ourselves. The City of Brampton is filled with hard working, talented individuals and I am looking forward to playing a part in advocating for the arts in Brampton and providing members of our community with the tools needed to realize their full creative potential!