September 26 – December 20
In ਅਲਮਾਰੀ (Almirah), Simranpreet Anand weaves traditional Punjabi dhurrie (flatweaving) patterns out of close-up photographs of clothing from her family’s armoire. These tapestries, which are recreated as a large-scale vinyl installation, are comprised of textiles Anand, her sisters, and her mother have worn over decades of participating in cultural functions and family events in Surrey, BC. Evidence of the hand is very important to Anand’s practice, and a dynamic visual interplay emerges between the slow labour of weaving, the indistinction between machine-made synthetics and handicraft textiles, and the sentimental value attached to all of the above. Notice how the light streams through the patterns, catching and projecting colours and impressing an atmospheric glow upon the corridor.
Note: This artwork can be found through security at Terminal 1, Domestic
Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art, co-presented with Toronto Pearson Airport, and made possible with the generous support of RBC, Eleanor and Francis Shen, and the Women Leading Initiative
View additional work by Simranpreet Anand at Harbourfront Centre.
Bio
Bio
Simranpreet Anand
Simranpreet Anand is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural worker creating and working between the traditional territories of the Kalapuya people (Eugene, OR) and the unceded territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, and Semiahmoo peoples (Surrey, BC). Informed by family and community, her artistic practice engages materials and concepts drawn from Punjab and the Punjabi diaspora while attending to their histories, circulation, and the seen/unseen labour held within them. She gives particular care to material culture, ancestral craft practice(s), archival histories and their disruption by colonialism and neoliberal capitalism.
Anand’s artistic and scholarly work is built on archival, ethnographic, and material research alongside community engagement. Notable projects include her touring exhibition sheeshe ‘ch tharer | a crack in the mirror (The Reach Gallery; Peel Art Museum; Nelson Museum, Archives & Gallery; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria), Foreign Dreams (Workers Arts & Heritage Centre, 2024), and Living with the Eternal (Stamps Gallery, 2024; Polygon Gallery, 2026). Her published work on Sikh visual culture appears in Sikh Formations (2026). For her artistic and community-based work, Anand has been the recipient of awards including the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award (2021), the Philip B Lind Prize (2022), and the 2024 MLK Spirit Award at the University of Michigan.
Anand holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of Michigan, and a BFA with Honours from the University of British Columbia. She is Visual Arts Faculty at Lane Community College in Eugene, OR where she spends her free time as an active member of the Eugene Climbers of Color.
Location
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Accessibility
Toronto Pearson Airport
Accessibility: Accessible entrance, washrooms, AODA Compliant Building
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Getting There
Toronto Pearson Airport
Parking: Paid
TTC: UP Express to and from Pearson Airport to Union Station.
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