Awarded as “Artist of the year” by the Quebec-based artist collective “Les artistes pour la paix,” Aquil Virani’s collaborative art projects combine painting, drawing, filmmaking, writing, graphic design, installation, and participatory art processes and ask important questions about social and environmental justice. In 2021, he was named the first ever national artist-in-residence at the Canadian Museum of Immigration.
As curator Celine Le Merlus of the Stewart Hall Art Gallery explains, “his approach, which aims not simply to assert a personal point of view on a pressing social issue, but also to facilitate opportunities for others to express themselves freely – to speak and be heard – is characteristic of all of Aquil’s work.”
Virani’s work has been supported financially by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and the City of Ottawa, in addition to the Silk Road Institute, the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, the Michaelle Jean Foundation, the International Centre of Art for Social Change, TakingITGlobal and the Government of Canada among many others. Learn more at aquil.ca.
