Sandeep Johal | New Works

×

Expand

Sandeep Johal, "Silhouette I"

acrylic on canvas, 48 x 30 inches. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Opening reception: Saturday, November 19, 2 - 4pm

Gallery Jones is pleased to announce our representation of Sandeep Johal.

Johal’s artistic practice has been characterized by subject matter that speaks to cultural identity and human rights through the lens of an Indo-Canadian folk and feminine aesthetic. The paintings and collages that Gallery Jones is highlighting in this introductory exhibition are from an on-going series titled Beast Women. The Beast Women exemplify Johal’s capacity to use dichotomies to elucidate a narrative; the hands of the figures have both delicacy and menace to them, the graphic outline of the head of the beast could be a source of fear or represent empowering rage. As a story-teller, Johal’s strength is in the way she plays binary elements together and against each other. These are visually exciting and joyful works with a simmering narrative.

Johal has worked on a number of notable site-specific commissions including a recent mural for the Vancouver Art Gallery’s inaugural #SpotlightVanArtRental project (2021), a digital projection mapping for Facade Festival produced by Burrard Arts Foundation (2019), and a 4,000 sf collaborative mural project for Vancouver Mural Festival, which centred around the Komagata Maru Episode and involved the denaming of the federal building it was painted on (2019). Her work was part of the group exhibition In/Visible: Body as Reflective Site through the McClure Gallery and Visual Arts Centre in Montreal in partnership with the IMPACTS Project (2019). 

Johal has been an artist-in-residence at Burrard Arts Foundation (2021) and Indian Summer Festival (2018) and is the 2019 recipient of the Darpan Magazine Artistic Visionary Award.

Johal holds a Diploma in Fine Arts (honours) from Langara College (2007) and a Degree in Education from the University of British Columbia (2002). She lives and works in Vancouver, BC.