Striking and colourful scenes of Indonesia and Pakistan will be on display at the ACT Art Gallery in an exhibition bringing the past into the future.
Vancouver-based artists Diyan Achjadi and Sara Khan are presenting works on paper, in watercolour, in addition to fabric installations of scenes from each of their homelands in the exhibition called Stories for Futures – Real and Imagined.
“Achjadi’s and Khan’s works share similarities in their use of vibrant colour palettes and textile references. Each artwork is an immersive and intricate world,” explained curator and gallery manager Courtney Miller.
Achjadi was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, and her formative years were spent moving between multiple educational, political, and cultural systems. She likes to explore the ways that surface ornamentation and illustrated printed matter can function as archives documenting the circulation of ideas in visual form.
Achjadi is currently a professor in the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
Khan was born in Birmingham, England, and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. She has been a participant in notable art residences and festivals in both Norway and Canada, and she has been a part of solo and group exhibitions across the globe.
She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore.
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Visitors to the exhibition in Maple Ridge will see blended imagery of waterways, plant life, landscape, family members, and non-human characters.
Stories for Futures – Real and Imagined will be showing at the ACT Art Gallery, 11944 Haney Place, Maple Ridge, until March 9.
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The ACT Arts Centre, home to the art gallery, opened in 2003 and is operated by the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows Arts Council, and
provides arts learning programs, gallery exhibitions and performing arts presentations, reaching more than 70,000 patrons annually.
The gallery is open from 10-4 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday, as well as select evenings.