Past Residents

Past Resident
2025: Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council

Artist

Manjot Kaur

Manjot Kaur’s drawings, paintings, and time-based media seek to de-patriarchalize women’s bodies while celebrating the sovereignty of nature. She cross-pollinates ancient mythologies and histories to reflect on relationships between humans and more-than-humans. Her practice moves between speculative fiction, archetypal allegories, and precarious ecologies, challenging the human-centered worldview and advancing a mode of thought that dismantles hierarchical notions of being.

Manjot Kaur has exhibited work at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; Drawing Room, London; and Stiftelsen Tensta konsthall, Sweden, among others.

Events & Exhibitions

2025 Fall Open Studios

November 14–November 15, 2025

Here Goddess Lajja Gauri is represented giving birth to an ecosystem rather than a human child. The works propose alternative means to think about the notions of motherhood, care, symbiosis, and reciprocity as well as explore the interrelation between humans and non-humans. The goddess Lajja Gauri is associated with abundance, fertility, and sexuality. She is usually invoked for vegetative fertility and good progeny. A blossoming lotus replaces her head and neck denoting blooming youth. She is sometimes shown in a birthing/squatting posture, but without outward signs of pregnancy.

Manjot Kaur, When She Birthed an Ecosystem (detail), 2020, watercolor and gouache on paper, 15 × 11 in. (38.1 × 27.94 cm).

Jharokha is a stone window, characteristic of Indian architecture, protruding from the wall of a building on the upper floor of a Haveli or Palace, overlooking a street, market, court or other open spaces. Because of this position, a Jharokha is often used as a pulpit, and the portraits of male rulers are often depicted from such a window in Indian miniature paintings. The concept of work takes reference from existing Indian Mughal miniatures paintings, in which portraits of kings and princes are depicted in architectural settings. I replaces the image of a ruler in Jharokha with a tree. Here, the tree becomes the protagonist acknowledging the plant intelligence and giving voice to the plants. To cultivate the ability to envision flora as regal figures, this work seeks to champion the idea of granting personhood to the botanical world, challenging the prevailing patriarchal attitude towards ecology. This painting reflects on the interconnectedness of nature and humanity, to subvert the traditional attitudes that marginalize the significance of ecological balance. What kind of world would we inhabit if trees were the rulers and kings?

Manjot Kaur, The Portrait of a Tree in a Jharokha (detail), 2025, watercolor, gouache and gold foil on wasli paper, 25 × 30 in. (63.5 × 76.2 cm).

In this painting, a Chthonic Being emerges through the hybrid form of a Yogini embodying the spirit of the endangered blackbuck - a graceful and endangered antelope, embodying both vulnerability and strength. She rides a chariot not made of metal or stone, but of living plants, which takes reference from calotropis gigantea(akk in hindi), dragonfruit vines, acacia, and wild grasses. These are plants rooted in resilience, survival, and connection to arid landscapes. Held in her hands are the exposed roots of a vast and fragile ecosystem. From these roots unfold scenes of cracked desert soil, a blackbuck pair, a waterbody, grasslands, mangrove trees and acacia trees amongst others—echoing the diverse and fragile ecologies of Kutch, one of the regions inhabited by Blackbucks. Rather than presiding over nature from above, this Chthonic Being carries the land with her, nurturing and protecting it as an extension of herself. This work reimagines myth as a living force for ecological justice. It challenges human-centered hierarchies and imagines a world where plants, animals, and landscapes are active participants in their own futures. The painting becomes a call to listen—to the roots, to the soil, and to the forgotten voices of the wild.

Manjot Kaur, Custodians of the Grasslands (detail), 2025, watercolor and gouache on paper, 31³/₈ × 22¹³/₁₆ in. (79.76 × 57.91 cm).

In this painting, a Chthonic Being emerges in symbiosis with the Steppe Eagle—an endangered raptor whose migratory presence ties together vast and threatened habitats. Seated atop a floating orb of leaves and undergrowth, she hovers above a dense green thicket, as if suspended between land and ether. Held in her hands is a massive tree with branches like thread. This tree is made not of a single trunk, but of many smaller trees intertwined, suggesting communal strength and interdependence of trees. Fourteen Steppe Eagles perch on the limbs of the tree. Their weight is bending the tree into an umbrella-like canopy over the Chthonic Being. Together they are forming a gathering space—a convocation in progress. The Chthonic Being herself sits poised in a posture of dialogue, evoking the image of a mediator or advocate preparing to speak on behalf of the birds she represents. The work imagines a speculative council in which eagles gather as beings demanding presence, rights, and recognition. Rooted in the Chthonic Beings series, this painting expands the idea of multispecies governance. It portrays an alternative reality where mythic figures serve as ecological diplomats, holding space for non- human voices to convene, negotiate, and be heard.

Manjot Kaur, The Convocation of Eagles, 2025, watercolor and gouache on paper, 31³/₈ × 22¹³/₁₆ in. (79.76 × 57.91 cm).

In this painting, a Chthonic Being has the head of a critoically endangered bird “Sumatran Ground Cuckoo. She is depicted recling on a cluster of leaves, as if her throne and hovering above the body of water or maybe mountains. She is holding a tree (of life) and is in conversation with a Polymorphous Being. The Polymorphous Being is comprised of the head of Sumatran Ground Cuckoo and various kinds of leaves, fungi, moss, grasses and branches intertwined with each other. The concept of Yoginis and Polymorphous Beings are explained in the above slide.

Manjot Kaur, On the Orb of Leaves (detail), 2025, watercolor and gouache on paper.

Residents from Canada

Élise Lafontaine

Canada

Canada Council for the Arts

2026

Kent Merriman

Canada

Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Studio #213

Heather Nicol

Canada, United States

Canada Council for the Arts

2026

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Australia, United States

Past Resident
2025: Creative Australia, The Dr. K. David G. Edwards & Margery Edwards Charitable Giving Fund

Artist

Arini Byng

Arini Byng is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the affective qualities of materials, gestures, and settings. Working across photography, performance, video, and painting, she creates intimate studies of movement and form that engage with political and personal histories. Recent works incorporate her family archive to reflect on lived experience, drawing from her Black-American-Anglo-Celtic heritage to examine how culture and memory shape selfhood, offering a nuanced perspective on diasporic identity.

Arini Byng has exhibited work at National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; Singapore International Photography Festival, Singapore; and Gertrude Contemporary, Australia, among others.

Events & Exhibitions

2025 Fall Open Studios

November 14–November 15, 2025

Arini Byng, How we breathe, 2025, installation view. Photo by Christian Capurro.

Arini Byng, How to Just Be, 2025, performance, Performed by Peta Duncan, Amaara Raheem and Jacob Coppedge. Photo by Machiko Abe.

Arini Byng, Nana and Beulah + Face Color: Pure Brown Glo Perfect Finish with Precious Plum Creme Rouge and Plum Pearl Beauty Blush, 2025, installation view. Photo by André Piquet.

Arini Byng, (indistinct chatter), 2018, video.

Arini Byng, Some voices carry, 2022, installation view. Photo by André Piquet.

Residents from Australia

Tom Polo

Australia

Creative Australia, The Dr. K. David G. Edwards & Margery Edwards Charitable Giving Fund

2024

Caroline Garcia

Australia

The Dr. K. David G. Edwards & Margery Edwards Charitable Giving Fund, Creative Australia

2020

Liz Nowell

Australia

Creative Australia, The Dr. K. David G. Edwards & Margery Edwards Charitable Giving Fund

2023

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Iran, Germany

Past Resident
2025: Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin

Artist

Neda Saeedi

Neda Saeedi’s multidisciplinary practice explores power structures, historiography, and materiality through sculpture and installation. Engaging with the socio-political dimensions of architecture, urbanism, and environmental violence, she uses material symbolism to expose systemic tensions. Themes of segregation frequently recur, often expressed through garden motifs as spaces of control. Through site-specific installations, she transforms familiar elements into spatial narratives that prompt viewers to confront layered histories. Combining aesthetic precision with incisive critique, her work reveals the ecological and social consequences of modernity.

Neda Saeedi has exhibited work at TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol, Austria; Klosterruine Berlin, Germany; and Argo Factory, Iran, among others.