Surrey Art Gallery's 50th year kick off with an exhibit of art by Toronto-based Rajni Perera, whose touring Futures opens with a special event Saturday, Jan. 25.
Founded in 1975, the busy gallery presents diverse contemporary art by local, national and international artists, including digital and audio works, inside Surrey Arts Centre, 13750 88 Ave., Bear Creek Park.
The second largest public art museum in Metro Vancouver, Surrey Art Gallery's exhibits change quarterly, and admission is always free. "We've shown over 500 exhibitions and 10,000 artists," boasts a post on SAG's website (surrey.ca/artgallery).
This winter, Surrey Art Gallery is the only West Coast stop on a tour of Futures, which features close to 30 works from various stages of Perera's career. Admission is free to see the exhibit until March 16, following a "winter opening and art party," Jan. 25 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Perera's multimedia work includes drawing, painting, clay, wood, lanterns, new media sculpture, textile and, most recently, synthetic taxidermy. Her art explores "issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, migrant and marginalized identities/cultures, monsters, and dream worlds," a bio notes.
In Futures, Perera "expresses her vision of imagined futures in which mutated subjects adapt to exist in dystopian realms through strength and resilience," according to an event advisory from Surrey Art Gallery.
"Perera draws deeply on the artistic traditions of Sri Lanka, her childhood home. Indian miniature painting, medieval armour, South Asian textiles, and science fiction also factor into her body of work that spans feminist and diasporic narratives while contemplating survival in an environmentally degraded future."
SAG curators say Perera "is singularly equipped to express the increasingly chaotic, often frightening, and sometimes hopeful world in which we find ourselves today."
Several weeks from now, the Futures exhibit includes a tour and conversation with Perera and Negarra A. Kudumu, curator of contemporary art, on Saturday, March 1 from 2 to 4 p.m.
The touring art show is organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, in Kleinburg, Ont., and is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue featuring an interview with the artist by curator Sarah Milroy, as well as essays by international literary figures Fariha Róisín and Britt Wray.
The Jan. 25 event at SAG also celebrates Cheryl Pagurek's Winter Garden (an interactive digital collage developed out of a still-life photography series), Pass the Mic! (artworks curated by Semiahmoo Arts Society) and Nicolas Sassoon's Liquid Landscapes (a Surrey-inspired series of animations returning on the new-look UrbanScreen venue at Surrey Civic Plaza). Other attractions that evening include artmaking with Claire Cilliers and art educators, poetry with Heidi Greco, a conversation with Milroy and SAG curatorial assistant Zoe Yang, sound installation with Ruby Singh and more.
On surrey.ca/artgallery, SAG's mission is to "engage the public in an ongoing dialogue about issues and ideas that affect our numerous communities, as expressed through contemporary art, and to provide opportunities for the public to interact with artists and the artistic process. We accomplish these aims through exhibitions, programs, and publications of contemporary art."
The gallery also acquires, manages, researches, preserves and exhibits work from its contemporary art collection, "held in trust for present and future citizens of the City of Surrey."
Surrey Art Gallery director Alison Rajah leads a curatorial team that includes Jordan Strom (curator, exhibitions and collections), Suvi Bains (associate curator), Rhys Edwards (assistant curator) and Jas Lally (assistant curator).
