Vicky Talwar

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.
In my paintings, I express the contrasts of my hybrid cultural identity by embracing both vibrant colour and textured materiality. My choice of pigment is the foundational element that the remainder of the artwork is built upon. I utilize a range of bright and vivid colours that represent my emotional energy and meditative process in the creation of the work. I use reoccurring spiritual motifs including intertwining flower garlands, mala beads, sacred threads, and salt to create a sense of presence and intention while playful brushstrokes and an atmospheric background produce a feeling of in-betweenness and transcendency. Similarly, my salt-based installation artwork operates under the same theme. Inspired by the ritualistic qualities of the mandala, I use salt as a purifying and healing material to accentuate my spirituality and highlight the space between what is tangible and what is a distant memory.