Vicky Talwar
Vicky Talwar is a Canadian-born Visual Fine Artist with a lifelong passion for painting with Mixed Media. Her work engages with themes, including cultural disruption, movement, and memory. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Toronto, California, New York, and the UK. Vicky has been in recent group exhibitions at The Graduate Gallery in Ontario College of Art and Design, The Elaine Fleck Gallery, and has had a VR solo show at Hashtag Gallery. She is the recipient of Juror's Award in the 2017 Annual Juried Art Exhibition at the Latcham Art Centre. Vicky holds a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art and Design and a Bachelor of Education from York University. Vicky is currently pursuing an MFA in the Interdisciplinary Master's in Art, Media & Design program at OCAD University. She is an elementary Visual Arts Teacher in the York Region District School Board.
She shares, “As an artist, I use my intersecting social identities as South-Asian, female, post-colonial, diasporic, and Canadian, to engage with themes, including identity, temporality, movement, and memory. Using natural elements and a variety of flora has been a healing source for me; they have helped to challenge the cognitive dissonance and the cultural disruption I have experienced throughout my life, as both a Hindu and a Canadian. Flower species, much like those that make up the floral garlands traditionally used in Indian rituals. They can differ in size and colours, having multi-layered identities.
Through their differences and similarities, we become captivated by their beauty and diversity. The vibrant colours, textures, and multiple frosted layers represent the memories that have formed the basis for my current reality, fluid and denoting place and time. Sacred threads are seamlessly weaved and intertwined through natural objects. These threads, and their intertwining nature act as a metaphor for my Hindu-Canadian culture. Worn-out and knotted, these threads express a spectrum of emotions. The juxtapositioning of one style of painting with another further suggests a cultural disruption. Each new frosted layer invites the viewer to look closely and examine what lies beneath the surface, challenging notions of sanctity and security, and showing vulnerability and longing for home, heart, peace of mind, and a place to belong in my truest authentic form.”
Follow Vicky on Instagram @vickyspaintings.
