Aman Sandhu (b. Toronto) is an artist working between Glasgow and Montréal. His installations encompass drawing, moving image, and text. He considers them as ensembles of objects that refuse to come into view through institutions’ unrelenting calculations. He engages in a critique of whiteness and seeks to destabilise the centre-margin rubric evoked in encounters between racialised artists and institutions—engagements that often reify whiteness even by refusal. Through improvisation, Aman rethinks the place of refusal in critique to produce other ways of coming to knowledge.
Education
2015 – 2017 Master of Fine Art (Distinction), The Glasgow School of Art
2013 – 2015 Guest Student in Klasse Rita McBride, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
Residencies
2022 Banff Centre, The Weapon of Theory as a Conference of Birds, Led by Ayesha Hameed & Xenia Benivolski
2021 Cove Park, Emerging Artist Residency, Helensburgh
2019 Studio Pavilion, House for an Art Lover, Glasgow
2018 Hospitalfield, Autumn Resident, Arbroath
2015 What About Art, Mumbai
Exhibitions / Projects
Solo
2022 The Magic Roundabout and The Naked Man with Andrew Black, Centre Clark, Montreal
2021 Never No More Lonely, SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre), Toronto, part of Missed Connections a pedagogical and research platform
UNDONE, Market Gallery, Glasgow, organised conversations about practice with selected artists
The Magic Roundabout and The Naked Man with Andrew Black, Glasgow International 2021
2020 So Glad, Market Gallery, Glasgow
2019 NO MORE ARTISTS, CCA / Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow
2017 Portable Stories, an August Fröhls Presentation, Gardiner Museum, Toronto
2015 ELEFANT 2 (Pedagogy), Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
Foundation Work, EA71, Mönchengladbach
2014 ELEFANT (Pedagogy), Sculpture Garden, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
Bani & Bana, EA71, Mönchengladbach
2013 Transcribe, EA71, Mönchengladbach
Group
2022 IGNITION 17, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal, curated by Marie Martraire and Michèle Thériault
2021 I didn't think it would turn out this way, P////AKT, Amsterdam, curated by Caitlin Merrett King / David Dale Gallery
rage and desire, online programme, CCA Annex, Glasgow, curated by Camara Taylor
Guitar!, online programme, Book Works, London, organised by Sarah Tripp
2020 My Lovely Lunarite, film programme, Images Festival, Toronto, curated by Aaditya Aggarwal
2019 MONITOR13 (experimental film + video programme), Dance on my head and scratch my heart, SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre), Toronto, co-curated by Sharlene Bamboat and Priya Sen
2018 I See You Man, Celine Gallery, Glasgow, organised by Nadia Hebson and Sophie Macpherson
2017 The Dancers Inherit the Party, Folio, Developed by Sarah Tripp on the Sharing Little Sparta Residency, Edinburgh
2016 Future 33, Younger than Beyoncé Gallery, Toronto, selected by Brette Gabel
2015 SETS, an August Fröhls Presentation, FOCUS Photography Festival, Mumbai
2014 even my mum can make a book #4, Apartment Project, Berlin, curated by Kristina Kramer
Drawing Tools, an August Fröhls Presentation, Mönchengladbach
No Space for Feng Shui, Alte Latin Schule, Viersen, curated by Katja Kottmann and Dino Steinhof
2013 Erkenntis, Klasse Rita McBride, Galerie M29, Cologne
2012 Genius Loci, Art Gallery of Mississauga, curated by Stuart Keeler
SummerWorks Performance Festival, Toronto, curated by Michael Rubenfeld
Interaccess Electronic and Media Arts Centre, Toronto
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Independent Projects, Toronto
Writing
2021 "Peanut Butter Jar and a Staircase." I didn't think it would turn out this way, exhibition publication
"House Omelette." Nothing Personal, Pilot Issue, Jan. 2021, pp. 54-61
Reviews
2022 Switzer, Megan. Common Boundaries and Refused Exits: Aman Sandhu and Andrew Black. Momus, Dec 2022
Benmaklouf, Adam. Review of NO MORE ARTISTS, by Aman Sandhu. The Skinny, Oct. 2019, pg. 49
Grants / Awards
2021 Research and Creation, Canada Council for the Arts
2020 Emerging Artist Residency at Cove Park, The Bridge Awards
2019 Visual Arts Grant, Hope Scott Trust
2018 Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award, Glasgow Life/Creative Scotland
2014 Kunststiftung NRW Project Grant, Germany
Kulturrucksack Project Grant, Germany
Kulturbüro Stadt Mönchengladbach Project Grant, Germany
2012 Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition Assistance Grant
Teaching / Workshops
2020 Visiting Lecturer, MFA, Glasgow School of Art
Visiting Artist, Hospitalfield Arts, Arbroath