Ravinder Ruprai

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The Arty Crowd funding sources require inclusion of members who identify as belonging to priority groups encompassing: Indigenous, ethnocultural communities, rural or remote residents, youth, and Francophones (english and french). Hamilton Arts Council further wants to measure its success in attracting members from all the diverse groups we serve in the Greater Hamilton Area arts community, including those who are LGBTQ2S+, and persons with disabilities. We will use the aggregates of the information collected here to measure our success in making The Arty Crowd an accessible and safe space for all who join. We thank the members of the committee from the Safer Spaces Project who advised us in creating an inclusive self-identification process.

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Biography / Artistic Statement / Creative Vision

Ravinder has an Honours B.A. in Fine Arts from McMaster University. Upon graduating, Ravinder immersed herself in the arts community in Hamilton, including regularly exhibiting her paintings and volunteering on art committees. She worked at the Art Gallery of Hamilton from 1997—1999, broadening her exposure to national artists, public collections and art education.

Ravinder returned to painting and art-making after a ten year unplanned hiatus (2003— 2013). During this time she devoted herself to raising three children and recovering from an aggressive form of cancer.

Ravinder’s art practice is often series based. While working under the larger theme of the mind/body connection, Ravinder has spent the last few years focussing on and moving towards wholeness: mind, body and spirit. She explores various aspects of the mind/body connection throughout her work—trauma and energy medicine, meditation and mental health, memory and remembrance and neuroplasticity. Ravinder is drawn to holistic healing, in a constant search for balance and living consciously.

Ravinder is largely an abstract painter who works primarily in acrylics on canvas and paper. Her paintings often explore dichotomies—playing between micro and macroscopic, and biological and geological forms. She uses layers of pattern and texture, drawn from her South Asian heritage, combined with nature, the body and the landscape. Her use of colour is rich, bold and dramatic. Her work post cancer includes the circle—a symbol of totality and wholeness, of perfection, of sacredness. The artist has recently been working with fabrics and fibre based materials creating more sculptural works.

Ravinder is a first generation immigrant, born in England and migrating to Canada in 1975. Her parents owned their own textile manufacturing factories in both countries. Her use of pattern and ‘textiles’ echoes this backdrop. Ravinder also uses ‘stitching’ in her paintings, referencing both her childhood environment and also as a recognition of the extreme medical procedures she has undergone.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>

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