A Shift in Consciousness

In A Shift in Consciousness, Stouffville-based artist Vicky Talwar offers a meditation on hybridity, memory, and spiritual continuity. Rooted in her experience as a Hindu-Canadian artist, Talwar interlaces South Asian ritual and aesthetic traditions with the layered realities of diasporic life in Canada. Through vibrant colours, textured surfaces, and recurring motifs such as flower garlands, mala beads and sacred threads, her paintings become spaces of reflection and transformation. Many of her works are intentionally created with multiple panels, which plays a vital role not only in composition but in meaning: diptychs and triptychs unfold as visual journeys, offering multiple perspectives on a theme, or mapping a transition from one state of being to another. 

This October, the exhibition will expand to include a luminous salt crystal mandala installation, drawing visitors further into a contemplative space where the sensory and the symbolic meet. A significant aspect of this mandala installation is the collaboration with Buddhist monk Lama Jam, who will present a Sound Energy Healing Mandala Performance. Across media, Talwar’s work honours the act of becoming and invites us to consider the power of creative intention as a form of healing and belonging. 

Vicky Talwar is an interdisciplinary artist who draws upon her personal experience as a Hindu Canadian to produce painting, mixed media, performance, and installation artworks. Talwar holds a BFA and MFA in Art, Media, & Design from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCADU), as well as a Bachelor of Education from York University. Talwar serves as an educator with the York Region District School Board and has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in Toronto, Canmore, Los Angeles, New York, the United Kingdom, and more. In completing her MFA at OCADU, Talwar exhibited her solo thesis exhibition, Inward Identities, at Latcham Arts Centre. Vicky has had her solo exhibitions at Aurora Cultural Centre and Station Gallery. In 2017, she was awarded the Juror’s Award for the Annual Juried Exhibition by Latcham Art Centre. She has had a solo exhibition at Capital One Office in Toronto that was programmed by Demetriou Art Group and a solo exhibition at Robert Langen Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario. Most recently, one of Talwar’s paintings has been acquired for international display by Global Affairs Canada for their Visual Art Collection. Additionally, one of her paintings has been acquired by Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), Barrie ON, for their permanent collection. Her work is also at Capital One Office in Toronto.