Vivek Shraya: The Vancouver Art Gallery Heller Lecture

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Vivek Shraya, "Heller Lecture," 2019

Photo by Nick Wong

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s eighteenth annual Heller Lecture will be delivered by Canadian multi-disciplinary artist Vivek Shraya on Wednesday, May 15 at 7 PM at the Annex Theatre (823 Seymour Street).

The best-selling author and Polaris Music Prize nominee will speak to the Gallery’s spring presentation, Moving Still: Performative Photography in India (April 19 to September 2, 2019), an exhibition of thirteen artists based in India who examine themes of gender, religion and sexual identity.

As an artist of South Asian heritage, who identifies as trans, Shraya will address ideas of migration and diaspora as well as gender identity, while drawing parallels to the practice of artists to her own work, specifically Trisha (2018), a series of self-portraits in which Shraya emulates and juxtaposes herself with photographs of her mother. Shraya’s book, I’m Afraid of Men, was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel.” She will be available for book signing following the event.