avneet
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ਅਵਨੀਤ ਆਕਾਸ਼ (ਕੌਰ) avneet akash (kaur) (any/all pronouns) is an interdisciplinary artist, disability justice activist, writer and educator who utilizes a combination of material, somatic, ecological and conceptual research to interrogate the multitude of ways power dynamics emerge and recede in society and the material world–-both natural and manufactured. their practice moves fluidly between painting, installation, printmaking/paper works, textiles, performance, sculpture, sound, video, photography, writing and low tech readily available applications. the path of their research is guided by the undercurrents of political movements and selfhood that constrain, conceive and perpetuate historical and contemporary narratives in public and private spheres of life. 

 

akash earned her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, BEd from University of British Columbia (2017-2018: medical leave), and CYT from Prana Yoga College. they have exhibited nationally at institutions including Peel Art Gallery Museum & Archives (2024), The Gladstone Hotel (2014), Gallery Gachet (2010), Koffler Gallery (2010), North Van Arts (2010), and in the US at Obsidian Ink & Gallery (2015), Carousel Projects (2012) and Wunderkammer Company (2012). akash developed and held the inaugural Health and Wellness Coordinator position at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency (Saugatuck MI, USA) (2015), where previously they were the recipient of the Summer Scholarship Program (2012).

 

as a queer, sick, disabled, neurodivergent, survivor, this past decade saw the pinnacle of debility from trauma and genetics compound to create the perfect storm for urgent medical treatment and increased rare complex chronic illnesses. in a 10 year span akash underwent 16 surgical procedures. although this decade-long health crises created profound isolation and immense loss, it brought with it the opportunity to reassess and embody a disabled political self. akash continues to redefines what it means to be in the studio, in community and in the world. as such she navigates an evolving radical creative practice often from bed, and other spaces of rest, subverting the normative pace and practice of art making and expectation. increasingly relying on accessible forms of making/creating, they continue to practice decolonial ways of being that reject social, racial and economic hierarchies. the compounding results of such experience have sharpened their focus to the ongoing assault of ableist colonial reverberations through environmental and civil calamity, the debilitation of sexual violence/abuse and the systemic silencing of the marginalised through isolation and alienation, to name a few.