[BCMA] Media Release Kamloops Art Gallery | Rajni Perera exhibition opens January 31

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MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release from
Kamloops Art Gallery
January 21, 2026

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Rajni Perera, I take a journey, you take a journey, we take a journey together, 2020
leather, trim, cotton, beads, metallic thread, beeralu lace, rubber gas mask.
Collection of Paul and Mary Dailey Desmarais III.
Photo courtesy of the artist and Patel Brown. © Rajni Perera
25.4 x22.9 x 17.8 cm.

Kamloops Art Gallery Presents Rajni Perera: Futures
Exhibition // January 31 to May 9, 2026

Join us for the Opening Reception Saturday, January 31
Welcome Prayer and Remarks // 5:30 pm
Exhibition Tour // 5:45 to 6:30 pm
Reception // 6:30 to 8:00 pm

There’s power in the artist’s radical and restorative futurism

Rajni Perera (b. 1985) came to Canada with her family in childhood from Sri Lanka, and in the years since has established herself as one of Canada’s leading contemporary artists. Her paintings and sculptures draw on such diverse traditions as historical Sri Lankan art, Indian miniature painting, medieval armour, South Asian textiles, and science fiction illustrations. Gathering inspiration from across place and time, Perera looks ahead to an uncertain future threatened by climate change and looming social inequities.

Perera’s works are populated by Travellers, visitors from the future who preside over dystopic realms, flooded and in flames, often mutated to adapt to their challenging environments. Far from grotesque, their physical mutations—extra eyes or limbs, hairless bodies, technicoloured and roughly textured skin—embody potent forms of biological resistance against the atrocities humankind continues to wage against our world.
In Perera’s hands, this process of environmental adaptation mirrors the immigrant and climate-refugee experience. By 2050, projections from the UN and World Bank estimate that between 140 million to one billion people will be displaced by climate change, predominately from Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and South Asia. Through the lens of science fiction, Perera imagines the adaptations and tools needed to survive this impending climate catastrophe.
About the Artist
Rajni Perera was born in Sri Lanka in 1985 and lives and works in Toronto. Her work explores issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, migrant and marginalized identities/cultures, monsters, and dream worlds. These themes come together to fuel explorations in a multimedia practice that includes drawing and painting, clay, wood, lanterns, new media sculpture, textile, and 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.

This exhibition was curated by Sarah Milroy, Frances and Tim Price Executive Director and Chief Curator, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Exhibition Opening Reception:

Everyone is invited to celebrate the Kamloops Art Gallery’s winter exhibitions at the Opening Reception Saturday, January 31 from 5:30 to 8:00pm.

The evening will begin with a welcoming prayer and remarks followed by an exhibition tour of Futures with Associate Curator of Collections and Research, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, John Geoghegan.
Following the tour will be a casual reception in the Studios and the Atrium with live music, an art making area, wine sponsored by Twisted Spirits on 3rd, and beer sponsored by Bright Eye Brewing.

Media Information
Charo Neville, Curator
250.377.2410
cneville at kag.bc.ca

About the Kamloops Art Gallery
The Kamloops Art Gallery, established in 1978, is situated on the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc within Secwepemcúl’ecw, the traditional territory of the Secwépemc people. The largest art gallery in Secwepemcúl̓ecw (the Interior of British Columbia), the Gallery offers national caliber art experiences through a diverse range of accessible and affordable exhibitions, talks, tours, and studio-based programming for all ages and abilities, and boasts a collection of over 3,000 works of art.




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KAMLOOPS ART GALLERY
101 – 465 Victoria Street, Kamloops, BC  V2C 2A9
250.377.2400  |  www.kag.bc.ca<http://www.kag.bc.ca/>


The Kamloops Art Gallery is situated on the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc within Secwepemcúl’ecw, the traditional territory of the Secwépemc people.

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