In the Studio with geetha thurairajah by Brittany Shepherd from Canadian Art.
Often, artists’ studios are filled with ephemera that offers clues into to their work—clippings of old print publications, images that resonate with them, texts or books that are relevant to whatever they’re thinking about at the moment.
Toronto artist geetha thurairajah’s sunny space, by contrast, is notably tidy, primarily occupied by materials and in-progress works. This makes sense, though, when you consider thurairajah’s primary source of inspiration, and the space where her works originate: the digital realm.
“I make digital drawings, these are then rendered into physical paintings,” she explains.
thurairajah, who has studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Rhode Island School of Design, was a finalist for the 2016 RBC Canadian Painting Competition—an appropriate accolade, given thurairajah’s self-reflexivity about the medium itself. “I’m interested in understanding why I’m painting in 2017,” she says.
Her work has recently shown at 8-11 and AC Repair Co. in Toronto, and at Worksound International in Mexico City. While this video was being filmed, thurairajah was preparing work for her showing at Projet Pangée in Montreal, which will be on view until March 25, 2017.
In this studio visit by Canadian Art’s video intern, Brittany Shepherd, thurairajah discusses her working process, and shows us work from her current solo show.
