We are thrilled to announce and honoured to host one of Canada’s most important artists, Rajni Perera, as Agnes’s 2022 Stonecroft Artist-in-Residence. Drawing inspiration from across contexts and continents and space-time continuums—from black holes to Rajput miniatures, Manga to Mecha-Droids—Rajni’s composite aesthetics constitute new mythologies birthed from multiplicity. Working in painting, sculpture, textile, and wearable creations, she mixes high and low, science and science-fiction, pop-loric and folkloric forms and references in artworks that point to paradigmatic shifts happening in Canada’s visual culture today. For her Stonecroft residency, Rajni is working on a significant commission for Agnes in collaboration with students in Queen’s BFA program, while mobilizing transdisciplinary thinking across Queen’s that entangles STEM research and climate refugees through the lens of contemporary mutation and diasporic studies—all underlining concerns central to Rajni’s prophetic aesthetic. Stay tuned!

Curated by Emelie Chhangur with Michelle Bunton and Sunny Kerr

The Stonecroft Artist-in-Residence is generously funded by the Stonecroft Foundation.