Marigold Santos: floral abstraction (somatic sibling)
14 June 2025 to May 10 2026
Curated by Darryn Doull
KWAG is pleased to be ‘back on the street’ again with our first external mural in two years! This time, we are taking a new approach and will be using the windows on the Community Access Space to host a mural by Marigold Santos for the next year. The mural, viewable from inside and outside the gallery, is a dynamic and eye-catching design that not only adds beauty and intrigue to the facility, but will also dramatically reduce the risk of bird strikes on these large windows. Santos addresses the work specifically, saying:
My large-scale vinyl works speak to an enlarged aspect within my tattoo practice, which is a facet within my larger art practice. Creating images designated for permanency on skin has deepened my relationship to image-making as a whole, and each mark is imbued with care and consideration. These abstractions come from fragments of my drawings and paintings, and convey gestures and figurations that parallel lived experiences. In this new work commissioned for the KWAG, these abstractions imply movement and stillness of the body (botanical or otherwise) that exist within a fluid boundary.
Marigold Santos pursues an inter-disciplinary art practice that includes painting, drawing, sculpture, tattoo, and sound. Her work examines notions of heritage, folklore, motherwork, and decolonization, and are presented within the otherworldly. Her paintings, drawings, sculptures, and tattoo work explores self-hood and identity that embraces multiplicity, fragmentation and empowerment, as informed by diasporic experiences. She holds a BFA from the University of Calgary, and an MFA from Concordia University. She is a recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, and was long-listed for the prestigious Sobey Art Award in 2023 and 2024. Her recent solo exhibitions include OF ARMOUR BESPOKE, OF FABRIC, OF SKIN, OF WITHIN / BINUBUO NG PASADYANG PROTEKSYON, NG TELA, NG BALAT, AT NG KALOOBAN (2024) at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, the pace and rhythm of time, floating / ang tulin at kumpas ng oras, lumulutang at the Patel Brown Gallery and Southern Alberta Art Gallery (2023), and exhibited her works in her works in the notable Relations – Diaspora and Painting (2020), both at the Fondation Phi in Montreal, with Relations – Diaspora and Painting exhibiting at the Esker Foundation in 2021. Her joint exhibition Efflorescence/The Way We Wake with Rajni Perera curated by Cheryl Sim which previously exhibited at the Fondation Phi (2023) and Contemporary Calgary (2024-2025) will open at the macLYON in France in the Fall of 2025. She continues to exhibit widely across Canada and internationally and is represented by Patel Brown Gallery in Toronto and Norberg Hall in Calgary. She maintains an active studio practice and gratefully resides in Treaty 7 Territory, in Mohkinstsis/Calgary.
See more artwork by Marigold Santos.
Image:
Bio photo courtesy of the Artist.
