Open to mocamigos members

Join us for a visit to artist Nep Sidhu‘s  Leslieville studio and some light refreshments.

RSVP to Anne Rawn arawn@museumofcontemporaryart.ca by March 3, space is limited. 
Exact location details will be provided closer to the date of the studio visit.

Nep Sidhu’s art practice resides along a continuum comprised of conceptual and technical components originating from antiquity, with relevance for the present. His sculptural practice combines language, light-baring materials, and incantation thus creating a third space that unifies endless parallels and possibilities. This work is informed by the interplay of script, the poetic wave of architecture, and an affinity for community. To date, Sidhu has produced large-scale explorations around ancestor veneration, the divine feminine, and the intersection of myth and history.

With the divine feminine in mind, along with a sense of pride and values that has become unbalanced in Sidhu’s ancestral home of Chakar, Punjab. Sidhu and his family along with Davinder Singh have formed Sher-E-Punjab Academy as an institution of boxing and learning for the village youth of Chakar.  In addition to the physical regimen, the students are also engaged by educational programming and life coaching.

The family’s focused approach to bring change to the community is by the empowerment of young girls, who are the building blocks to their future. With boxing being the forefront of this initiative, Sidhu explores the intersection of Ceremony and Sport through his textile and adornment practise under Paradise Sportif. It is here where Sidhu’s investigation into vestment and a non-commercial clothing line, discloses the ideal conduct for maximum sustainability in contemporary spaces. The guiding principle is protect and exalt. Paradise Sportifreadies individuals (from women in the school to the arts collective Black Constellation and Shabazz Palaces) to engage with the sacred that exists within themselves and their environment. Aesthetic components drawn from myriad textile and ornament traditions which leverage, reinforce, and disguise ceremony. A dialogue between sport and ceremony upholds considerations around time, place, and divine connectivity.

Image: Malcolm’s Smile, 7a, 7b, 7 c 2015 Wool, poly-cotton, aluminum, 150 x 96 x 15 in. each. Commissioned by the Frye Art Museum and funded by the Frye Foundation, Douglas Smith. Courtesy of the Artist.