Workshops
Painting Narratives in Abstraction

Abstract painting displayed on wall

Date

Sunday, Sep 28, 2025 13:00

Registration Opens

Thursday, Aug 7, 2025 00:00

Admission

Workshops - Public: $90.00 Workshops - Member: $82.00

Audience

Adults

About

Join artist Russna Kaur for a 3-hour painting workshop at the Royal Ontario Museum. In this session, Kaur will share her creative process, which includes using found text, bright colours, layering different materials like acrylic paint, sawdust, and gel medium, and building paintings from smaller parts. She will also discuss how her personal and cultural experiences, memories, and background influence her work. Participants will then create their own paintings using these methods. The class is designed to help people explore new ways of making art, focus on how colours and shapes interact, and enjoy the process of discovery. This workshop is open to all experience levels.

This program is presented as part of the Global Sikh Art & Culture Gallery Programs.

Artist Bio

Russna Kaur sitting on a chair posing for photo
Russna Kaur

Russna Kaur (b. 1991, Brampton, Ontario) is a painter currently living and working in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kaur completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Waterloo (2013) and a Master of Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2019). Russna Kaur is the recipient of the Takao Tanabe Painting Prize (2020) and the IDEA Art Award (2020). 

She has exhibited works nationally at institutions including the Kamloops Art Gallery (2021), Remai Modern in Saskatoon, SK (2023), Vancouver Art Gallery (2024), Audain Art Museum in Whistler, BC (2024), College Art Galleries at the University of Saskatchewan (2025) and internationally at Galerie Isa in Mumbai, India (2023) and Gajah Gallery in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2024). Kaur has an upcoming exhibition at the Art Gallery of Burlington in Ontario (2025).

Kaur has been an artist-in-residence at the Burrard Arts Foundation (2020) in Vancouver, the Centrum Emerging Artist Residency (2020) in Port Townsend, Washington, an Independent Artist Residency in Los Angeles, California (2024) and the Wassaic Project in New York (2025). Upcoming residencies include the Annandale Artist Residency on Prince Edward Island (2025). 

Russna Kaur was commissioned to create public artwork for the Translink Art Columns in the City of Richmond, BC (2018), Boren Banner Series at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA (2021), Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives in Brampton, ON (2022) and Square Nine Developments in Burnaby, BC (2026).

Kaur’s work is held in numerous private, corporate and institutional collections including the TD Bank Collection, RBC Art Collection, Audain Art Museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Surrey Art Gallery, and the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art.