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Free talk with award-winning filmmaker and artist

Surrey Art Gallery hosts Oliver Husain on May 11, one of the artists featured in Spectacular Sangeet.
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Oliver Husain (left) will give a presentation in Surrey on Saturday. At right is an image from his 2012 film Item Number

Join award-winning artist Oliver Husain this Saturday for a discussion about his recent artwork, including his short film Item Number that is featured in the Surrey Art Gallery’s current exhibition Spectacular Sangeet.

Husain’s art practice combines film, sculpture, painting, performance art, and set design in ways that bridge the gap between the space of the art museum and the theatre, western and eastern art, and film history.

The event is part of the gallery’s Transpacific Transect Speaker Series, an ongoing series that examines the relationships between art and cultural production between Canada and Asia. Past speakers have included artist Paul Wong and curator/critic Alice Ming Wai Jim.

Husain is a filmmaker and artist based in Toronto and Frankfurt. After studying film and art in Offenbach (Germany) and Baroda (India), in 2003, Husain’s video Q was awarded with the National German Film Award for best experimental short film. In 2004/05, he produced a series of travelogues in China, Indonesia, and India titled Swivel, Shrivel, and Squiggle, which screened at many international film festivals and exhibitions. In 2008, he was the featured filmmaker at the Flaherty Film Seminar in New York. In 2009, his screening of Purfled Promises premiered at the Live Film! Jack Smith! Festival in Berlin. Husain’s C-Value exhibition was recently featured at Republic Gallery, Vancouver. His exhibition Gebimsel launches at Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto this spring.

His work is included in Spectacular Sangeet, Surrey Art Gallery’s current exhibition of dance, music and theatre spanning the grand scale of old Bollywood films to the more intimate spaces of community traditions. Check surrey.ca/artgallery for more.

Husain’s talk takes place May 11, 3-4:30 p.m. at 13750 88 Ave. Parking is limited, so arrive early. Admission is by donation.