EDUCATION

B.F.A. 2011 in Drawing & Painting, OCAD University

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (solo unless otherwise indicated)

2023 The Vessel With Two Mouths, Patel Brown Gallery, Toronto

2023 Futures, The McMicheal Canadian Art Collection, Kleinberg

2023 Beyond The Words of Earth, Temple Contemporary, Philadelphia

2022 Wonder Women, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles

2022 TRAVELLER, Eastside Projects, Birmingham UK

2022 Colomboscope - Language Is Migrant, Colombo, Sri Lanka

2021 Sobey Art Award Exhibition, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

2021 In The Realm Of Lightning (duo with Nep Sidhu), Patel Brown Gallery, Toronto

2021 Minds Rising Spirits Tuning, the Gwangju Biennial, South Korea

2021 Relations: Diaspora & Painting (group), The Esker Foundation, Calgary

2020 TRAVELLER, Tramway, Glasgow

2020 Relations: Diaspora & Painting, Centre PHI, Montreal

2020 Talisman (curatorial), Patel Brown Gallery, Toronto

2020 Made of Honey, Gold & Marigold (group), The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa

2019 TRAVELLER, Patel-Division Projects, Toronto

2019 The Face Of The Deep (group), Project Gallery, Toronto

2018 (m)Otherworld Creates and Destroys Itself, Project Gallery, Toronto

2018 Believe (group), The Museum Of Contemporary Art, Toronto

2018 Banlieue! Triennial, Salle Alfred Pellan, Maison Des Arts de Laval, Quebec

2017 Everyday Objects, Art Metropole, Toronto

2017 Migrating The Margins, Art Gallery of York University (Group), Toronto

2017 HEAT, OTA Fine Arts (Group), Tokyo

2016 Colombo Art Biennale, Colombo (Participating Artist), Sri Lanka

2015 The Embellished Lens, Saskia Fernando Gallery (Solo), Colombo

2013 Illuminated Mythologies (Duo), Mark Christopher Gallery, Toronto

2011 Cue by Sketch (nka Margin of Eras) Gladstone Hotel (group), Toronto

2011 The New Archeology / The New Ethnography, Gallery129, Toronto

AWARDS & GRANTS

MOCA Award, 2023

Canada Arts Council Explore and Create Grant, 2023

Sobey Art Award (shortlist), 2021

Canada Arts Council Concept to Realization Grant, 2019

York Wilson Memorial Award, Canada Arts Council, 2019

Toronto Arts Council Individual Artists Grant, 2018

Canada Arts Council Travel Grant, 2016, 2018

Toronto Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant 2013, 2016

Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist Grant 2013, 2015

Medal for Drawing and Painting, OCAD University 2011

Nora E. Vaughan Award, OCAD University 2011

PUBLICATIONS / PRESS

Traveller by Rajni Perera, Monolith Editions NY, 2020

Minds Rising Spirits Tuning: Matters of Mutation, Natasha Ginwala and Defne Ayas, Publication of the 13th Gwangju Biennale, 2021

Vision Of Hope: Rajni Perera Uses Her Art To Uncover Truth, by Sadiya Ansari, Toronto Star, March 14th 2021

Made of Honey, Gold, and Marigold, essay for the exhibition by Genevieve Wallen, McLaughlin Art Gallery, 2020

Migrating The Margins: Circumlocating the Future of Toronto Art by Philip Monk & Emelie Chhangur, Art Gallery of York University, 2019

In a postcolonial society, artists contend with official fictions by Jyoti Dhar, Aperture Magazine, “Family” Issue # 233, Winter 2018

Featured artist: Reading Rajni Perera by Negarra A. Kudumu, Cmagazine Issue 137, Spring 2018

A Grand Nationalist Reckoning in the Art World in 2017 by Murray Whyte, The Toronto Star, Dec 26th 2017

Unearthing The Creativity Within Toronto’s Suburbs by Chris Hampton, The Globe And Mail, Oct 5th 2017

Review: The National Post, At the Galleries: A Plethora of Paintings by Leah Sandals, Sept 23, 2011


RAJNI PERERA b. 1985

 Rajni Perera was born in Sri Lanka in 1985 and lives and works in Toronto. She explores issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, migrant and marginalized identities/cultures, monsters and dream worlds. These themes come together to fuel explorations within a multimedia practice that includes drawing and painting, clay, wood, lanterns, new media sculpture, textile, and most recently, synthetic taxidermy. Perera seeks to open and reveal the dynamism of the icons, beings and objects she creates by means of a subversive aesthetic that counteracts antiquated, oppressive discourse, and acts as a restorative force. Perera’s work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Sobey Foundation, and the Musée De Beaux Arts De Montréal.