Vancouver, British Columbia – An iconic part of Vancouver—the Punjabi Market in South Vancouver—has served as a cultural hub for decades. This week, Punjabi Market has begun transforming with vibrant murals that honour the community through the work of local BIPOC artists in partnership with Vancouver Mural Festival. The Punjabi Market Regeneration Collective is calling this initiative Murals in the Market, sponsored and supported by RBC, TD, Orr Development, City of Vancouver and Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts.
The four murals are slated to be completed by mid-August.
The Punjabi Market Regeneration Collective is a group of passionate advocates, artists and entrepreneurs who are working towards revitalizing Vancouver’s historic Punjabi Market by beautifying the market and creating a hub for arts and culture. Their goal with Murals in the Market is to help facilitate storytelling through public art by collaborating with local BIPOC artists, to bring more foot traffic to the market and shine a spotlight on Punjabi Market once again.
Punjabi Market was the first of its kind in North America, founded in 1970. From humble beginnings, Main Street transformed into a cultural hub and was home of the first Punjabi-language street signs outside of Asia. It is located along Main Street between 48th and 51st Avenues.
Vancouver Mural Festival is the world-class evolution of a grassroots initiative to transform the way art is experienced in Vancouver. VMF is dedicated to artistic and cultural development in our city. We create experiences that connect art and people in public space. Since 2016, VMF has created 250+ murals, grown our annual summer festival into one of Vancouver’s premiere events, and continues to reimagine public art and events in our city. Vancouver Mural Festival runs from August 4th until August 22nd.
There are 5 artists this year who have been selected by Guest Curator Jas Lally:
- Diamond Point of the Musqueam Indian Band incorporates traditional Coast Salish design elements to represent the beautiful teachings and history that her ancestors have passed down for generations.
- Guntaj Deep Singh, a Vancouver based self-taught queer artist who nourishes his imagination through his passion of fusing art and poetry.
- Minahil Bukhari is an interdisciplinary artist interested in poetic gestures that enable a sense-feeling that cannot be comprehended by language.
- Mustaali Raj is an art director and designer working at intersections of concept development and visual communication.
- Sandeep Johal is a visual artist whose practice engages drawing, collage, textiles, and large-scale murals.
