1:1 Artists Select: Russna Kaur | Kapwani Kiwanga

The impulse to make connections between objects is a nearly universal experience. Artists are always in dialogue with their predecessors and peers, and they often make astute curators.

1:1 Artists Select is a new initiative that invites artists to select a work from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s extensive collection to be displayed in dialogue with their own work in the Forecourt.

The second to participate is Vancouver–based artist Russna Kaur. She has selected a work from the collection by Kapwani Kiwanga.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Russna Kaur was born in 1991 in Brampton, ON, and attended the University of Waterloo and Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Kaur produces abstract paintings characterized by an experimental use of colour and materials. She frequently groups canvases together to create monumental compositions that address complex personal and cultural histories. The artist spent her formative years immersed in her mother’s Indian bridal shop, surrounded by rich and vibrant colours—colours with distinct cultural meanings that she applies in her paintings today. Kaur’s work first entered the Gallery’s collection in 2020.   

Kapwani Kiwanga was born in 1979 in Hamilton, ON, and studied at McGill University and L’École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Kiwanga works with a broad range of unconventional materials and often at a monumental scale. Her material choices are inspired by her multidisciplinary research and take on new meanings within her work. Her work often considers structures of power as well as forgotten and marginalized histories and their repercussions on contemporary life. Kiwanga represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2024 and her work first entered the Gallery’s collection in 2022.