Kirandeep Grewal is a multi-disciplinary community artist and art educator based in Canberra. Her art practice takes a meditative approach to daily life, focusing on learning, sharing, and encouraging others to engage with art. Kirandeep draws from various techniques she’s learned while traveling and interacting with artisans from different cultures. She creates designs on silk scarves, wall hangings, and paintings, working with a range of media like silk, canvas, and paper. Her work invites viewers to reflect on harmony, migration, and connection with the natural world.
One of Kirandeep’s key pieces from 2023 is A Journey. This textile artwork measures 65 x 63 x 2 cm and uses hand embroidery on hand-dyed silk, linen, cotton, wool, and denim, stitched together with DMC threads. The piece was born from her thoughts during Harmony Week in Australia, which celebrates diversity and inclusion. While working on it through the winter months, Kirandeep reflected on harmony not only within society but within herself. She described how the artwork embodies her connection to the land, the flora and fauna of Australia, and her efforts to create a sense of balance for herself and her surroundings. This introspective work serves as a bridge to her later pieces that explore themes of migration.
Kirandeep’s work on migration is deeply personal, with the artist gradually expanding this theme into multiple artworks. Two of her more recent paintings, A Learning Journey (2024) and Green Vase (2024), both measuring 60 x 46 x 2 cm, reflect her experience as a migrant and her relationship with the Australian landscape.
A Learning Journey is a self-portrait, showing Kirandeep with her three children. The magpie, a bird common in Australia, is a central symbol in the painting, representing hope and joy as it welcomed her family into their new environment. The piece illustrates migration not simply as a process of relocation but as a generational act of love and care. Kirandeep reflects that migration, for her, is something done with the next generation in mind, highlighting the profound connection between parent and child. This theme is reinforced by the way the painting focuses on the bond between the artist and her children, with each child held close to the mother’s heart.
The inclusion of the magpie reflects Kirandeep’s appreciation for the natural world, which she sees as a source of hope and comfort in her journey. The bird’s presence is not just an aesthetic choice but a meaningful symbol that echoes her themes of adaptation and belonging. It is a subtle nod to how the Australian landscape has provided her with a sense of place, grounding her and her family in their new home.
Green Vase, another acrylic painting from 2024, shifts the focus to Kirandeep’s connection with her garden. This work features dried daffodils from her garden, painted with care to emphasize the fragility of life. The delicate flowers serve as a reminder of both the beauty and the impermanence of nature. Kirandeep’s garden plays an important role in her life, offering her a way to stay connected to the earth and find stability amid the uncertainties of life. In this painting, the fragility of the daffodils mirrors the human experience, particularly for those undergoing migration and transition. It symbolizes the delicate balance between holding on to one’s roots and embracing change.
Both A Learning Journey and Green Vase continue to explore Kirandeep’s migration journey, underlining the themes of resilience, connection, and identity. For her, migration is not about losing oneself in the process but about becoming who you truly are. It’s a gentle, patient progression, a way of moving forward while staying connected to the land and its people. Kirandeep’s artwork invites the viewer to reflect on their own relationship with place, identity, and change, encouraging them to embrace their own journey, however it may unfold.
Kirandeep’s ongoing series on migration continues to evolve as she creates more works that delve into this deeply personal subject. Her thoughtful approach to textile and acrylic art allows her to explore complex themes with simplicity and grace, making her work accessible and engaging for a broad audience. Her use of materials, from hand-dyed textiles to everyday items found in her garden, brings a tactile, grounded quality to her art, connecting the viewer with the physical world in a meaningful way.
In reflecting on Kirandeep Grewal’s work, it is clear that her art is as much about the process of creation as it is about the finished product. Whether through the intricate stitches of her textile art or the careful brushstrokes of her acrylic paintings, her work speaks to the universal experience of searching for harmony, identity, and connection in a rapidly changing world. Each piece is a testament to her journey, and through it, she invites others to engage in their own.
