A richly detailed black and white photograph of an elderly street musician in Jaipur, an oil painting of a woman clad in colourful traditional dress, an oil painting of a newly married couple locked in an embrace, pen and ink
studies of sacred architecture, a photo-collage of passengers aboard the Komagata Maru collaged together with related text documents, and a precisely rendered oil paint portrait of a famous poet.
From the Land of Five Rivers, a new exhibition that runs until Aug. 14 at the Surrey Art Gallery, presents forty recent paintings, photographs and drawings by six Lower Mainland-based artists: Vipin Kapoor, Baljit Kaur, Jay Panesar, Dave Singh Benning, Jarnail Singh and Mandeep Wirk.
The artists have represented the cultural traditions, history, street life and domestic interiors of their cultural homeland of the Punjab, as well as their experiences living in southwestern B.C. The exhibition title reflects the ancestry of these artists, as the Punjab is also known as the "land of five rivers" due to the network of winding rivers that trace the edges of the region. The artists have selected artworks that respond to complex notions of home, an ancestral homeland, place, history and memory.
The artists will be in attendance at the exhibition reception on June 24 at 7 p.m. Admission to the exhibition and reception is free.
The Surrey Art Gallery is located at 13750 88 Ave. Phone 604-501-5566 or check www.surrey.ca/arts for more information.