‘To wear a face you still have - the feeling of being surrounded comes alive in many ways’

Galerie Isa is proud to showcase artist Russna Kaur’s paintings for the first time in India. This series of works, dynamically titled, ‘To wear a face you still have-the feeling of being surrounded comes alive in many ways’ continues Kaur’s fascination with abstraction of thought, of influences and of expression.

To get to the heart of Kaur’s painting is to start at the very beginning—with her writing—an important part of her process. This title came about when Kaur revisited poems she had written, rearranging, cutting, pasting, stitching words back together in a different order; straying from an initial train of thought to prompt discovery. The title references the hyper awareness of social perception; the masks we wear, how we conceal or reveal, distract or deflect, the range of reactions we elicit. In Kaur’s thesis, it’s similar to how we interact with the surface of a painting, complicating a reading through abstraction, colour, texture, shape and form. What lies beneath the surface may never really be understood— embedded within layers of materials and stories—but over time becomes inevitably linked; tangled, twisted lines that form the very foundation of shared experiences.

For this series, Kaur’s meditations continue to delve into the social preoccupations with linearity. The solidity and logic of a straight line, the directness (both physical and metaphorical), the lines that are spoken and unspoken, the lines of thought and inquiry, the regimentation of movement and of ideas, of preset pathways. By pulling apart line, Kaur focuses on the act of connection and severance, of artistically drawing the eye to certain parts of composition, while distracting from others, of examining the fragility and delicacy, the line as directional, chaotic, intersectional, leading.

Kaur’s works are iterative, revisiting compositional structures, palettes and shapes, an alchemy of seemingly disparate influences that layer her work in such complex ways. Her background as a Canadian of Indian descent is equally as layered. Kaur’s educational beginnings in Biology propels her to experimentation, to macro and micro compositions, analogous to microscopic and direct visual cues; her time working in her mother’s Indian clothing boutique and designing bridal wear, impacts her sense of colour and composition, an appreciation for repetition in pattern; visits to amusement parks bring in a sense of overstimulation—an illusory world with fantastical experiences, whimsical elements, and dizzying crowds; the architectural elevations of religious spaces that generate a sense of stillness disappearing the moment you leave their confines, leads to an exploration of the self’s relationship with surroundings; and as a child of the Nineties, the pop culture phenomena of ‘Where’s Waldo’ and ‘Polly Pocket’ games examines the idea of close observation—of scanning and isolating points of interest and of making new connections and discoveries, on each viewing. Kaur also cites as inspirations, contemporary artists, such as Mark Bradford, Julie Mehretu, Beatriz Milhazes and Katharina Grosse, all known for their multi-faceted approaches to colour and composition.

For this series of eight works, Kaur has used a variety of mark-making techniques, ensuring that through the application of acrylic paints mixed with sawdust and gel mediums (applied with palette knives and brushes to maintain body and volume on the surface) along with spray paint and oil stick, each piece is high on contrast. The materiality and technique heightening the tension, the textures intertwining and overlapping to create a tangled web, a negation of the neatness that characterizes straight lines. Instead, the paintings examine a chance to explore spaces that are not linear and preset.

Kaur’s work as an artist is not didactic, on the contrary, it is a continuing discourse, with each mark, each element, a response, a reaction to a volley of ideas and thoughts. The interaction further expanding each painting, bringing the work closer to the image in the artist’s mind.

Kaur (b. 1991, Brampton, Ontario) is an artist living and working in Vancouver, BC. She holds an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2019), and a BA with a studio specialization from the University of Waterloo (2013). Her work is held in collections including the Audain Art Museum (2021), Vancouver Art Gallery (2021), Surrey Art Gallery (2022) and the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art (2022) as well as several private and corporate collections. Kaur is the recipient of the Takao Tanabe Painting Prize (2020) for emerging painters in British Columbia and the IDEA Art Award (2020). She has been an artist-in-residence at the Burrard Arts Foundation (2020) in Vancouver and the Centrum Foundation (2020) in Port Townsend, Washington. Kaur has been commissioned to create public artworks including the Boren Banner Series, Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2021); and Outdoor Banner Series, Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives, Brampton, ON (2022).