Russna Kaur grew up in her mother’s Indian bridal boutique in Brampton, Ontario - surrounded by glittering fabrics, ornate surfaces, and the performance of joy. But behind the embellishment, she was watching something else: how beauty can mask vulnerability, how colour can distract, and how appearances rarely tell the whole story. In this conversation, Russna reflects on growing up as the eldest daughter in a Punjabi household, moving through a biology degree and commercial design, and eventually choosing painting as the first place she didn’t need permission. She speaks openly about surviving a turning point that forced her to reconsider her path, and finding in abstraction a way to express what can’t always be said directly. We discuss repetition as persistence, restraint after excess, imperfection as revelation, and the friction between illusion and exposure. Her paintings appear immersive from a distance, but up close they intentionally misalign - revealing process, fracture, and the refusal of a perfect surface. Russna joins us from Vancouver as she prepares a new body of work for her upcoming exhibition at Cooper Cole, opening March 28. Russna Kaur (b. 1991, Brampton, Ontario) is a painter currently living and working in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kaur completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Waterloo (2013) and a Master of Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2019). Russna Kaur is the recipient of the Takao Tanabe Painting Prize (2020) and the IDEA Art Award (2020). She has exhibited works nationally at institutions including the Kamloops Art Gallery (2021), Remai Modern in Saskatoon, SK (2023), Vancouver Art Gallery (2024), Audain Art Museum in Whistler, BC (2024), College Art Galleries at the University of Saskatchewan (2025) and internationally at Galerie Isa in Mumbai, India (2023) and Gajah Gallery in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2024). Kaur has an upcoming exhibition at the Art Gallery of Burlington in Ontario (2025). Kaur has been an artist-in-residence at the Burrard Arts Foundation (2020) in Vancouver, the Centrum Emerging Artist Residency (2020) in Port Townsend, Washington, an Independent Artist Residency in Los Angeles, California (2024), and the Wassaic Project in New York (2025). Upcoming residencies include the Annandale Artist Residency on Prince Edward Island (2025). Russna Kaur was commissioned to create public artwork for the Translink Art Columns in the City of Richmond, BC (2018), Boren Banner Series at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA (2021), Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives in Brampton, ON (2022) and Square Nine Developments in Burnaby, BC (2026). Kaur’s work is held in numerous private, corporate and institutional collections including the TD Bank Collection, RBC Art Collection, Audain Art Museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Surrey Art Gallery, and the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art.
