Visiting Artist Lecture: Rajni Perera

Rajni Perera was born in Sri Lanka in 1985 and lives and works in Toronto. She explores issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, migrant and marginalized identities/cultures, monsters and dream worlds. These themes come together to fuel explorations within a multimedia practice that includes drawing and painting, clay, wood, lanterns, new media sculpture, textile, and most recently, synthetic taxidermy. Perera seeks to open and reveal the dynamism of the icons, beings and objects she creates by means of a subversive aesthetic that counteracts antiquated, oppressive discourse, and acts as a restorative force. Perera’s work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Sobey Foundation, and the Musée De Beaux Arts De Montréal. 

This talk is free and open to the public, all are welcome. Registration required. If you have accommodation needs, please let us know through the registration form or contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca.

U of T Scarborough students attending for course credit should register here. 

This talk is part of the Visiting Artist Lecture Series, co-presented by the Doris McCarthy Gallery & Studio Art program, Department of Arts, Culture & Media, University of Toronto Scarborough. The theme of this year's series, Futures Otherwise: Memory, Myth and the Politics of Tomorrow, invites artists to share insights into their respective practices exploring themes including Afrofuturism, Indigenous futurisms, diasporic mythology, techno-utopian, queer temporalities, and beyond. These artists engage with the future not just as speculative, but as a site of resistance, healing, memory and radical re-imagining. 

This is a seated event. The classroom is wheelchair accessible.