Sarindar Dhaliwal

Sarindar Dhaliwal was born in Punjab, moved with her family to England at the age of four and grew up in Southall, London. At the age of fifteen, she migrated again with her family to Canada. She received a BA in Fine Art at Falmouth University, Cornwall in England (1978), then moved back to Canada where she still lives. Characterized by intense colour and compelling imagery, Dhaliwal’s art investigates memory, identity and migration. She gained an MA from York University in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in 2019. Dhaliwal has exhibited across Canada at institutions including the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; the Koffler Art Gallery, Toronto; the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston; and A Space Gallery, Toronto. An exhibition of her work, Record Keeping, toured England in 2004. Her work is owned by various private collectors across Canada and UK, and is in institutional collections including the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Robert McLaughlin Art Centre; the Walter Philips Gallery and the Canada Council Art Bank. Dhaliwal was the 2012 recipient of the Canada Council International Residency at Artspace, Sydney, Australia. Her solo exhibition, The Radcliffe Line and Other Geographies, travelled to three Canadian venues in 2015-16.

Her first AGO solo exhibition, Sarindar Dhaliwal: When I grow up I want to be a namer of paint colours runs from July 22, 2023 to January 7, 2024. It highlights the artist’s significant contribution to Canadian art with a selection of key works, including meticulously rendered drawings and mixed media works from the 1980s to the 2000s, alongside large-scale installations and recent photography. Southall: Childplay is one of the first works visitors see as they enter the exhibition space, serving as an introduction to the show.