Rajni Perera: Futures
Rajni Perera, Traveller 5, 2019. Mixed media on paper, 152.4 × 101.6 cm. Royal Bank of Canada Art Collection, commissioned by the RBC Curatorial Department. Photo courtesy of the artist and Patel Brown.
Rajni Perera
Futures
September 18 – December 6, 2025
Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough
Rajni Perera came to Canada with her family in early childhood from her birthplace, Sri Lanka, and has established herself in recent years as one of Canada’s leading contemporary artists. Her paintings and sculptures draw on such diverse traditions as science fiction, Sri Lankan art, Indian miniatures, medieval armour, and South Asian textiles, gathering in all of history as she looks ahead to an uncertain future threatened by climate change and looming social inequities. Her future goddesses prevail over dystopic realms, mutating to adapt to their challenging environments. Looking to the past and to the future, and endowed with a powerful diasporic imagination, Perera is singularly equipped to express the chaotic, often frightening, and sometimes hopeful world in which we find ourselves today.
Futures is organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Public Programs
All programming is free. Please see the DMG website for visitor information, and contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca with any accommodation needs.
Public Reception
Saturday, September 27, 2 – 4pm
Doris McCarthy Gallery & Ralph Campbell Lounge, U of T Scarborough
Join us to celebrate the opening of Futures at this drop-in public reception, including remarks by Rajni Perera at 3pm. Light refreshments and a cash bar will be offered, all welcome.
Visiting Artist Lecture: Rajni Perera
Tuesday, September 30, 1 – 2pm
IA2160, Sam Ibrahim Building, U of T Scarborough
Registration required
As part of the Visiting Artist Lecture Series, co-presented by the Studio program, Department of Arts, Culture & Media, U of T Scarborough, Rajni Perera will present on her artistic practice, with a focus on the way her work engages with the theme of Futures Otherwise: Memory, Myth and the Politics of Tomorrow.
spectrum soundbath with Marilyn Yogarajah
Wednesday, October 15, 1 – 3pm
Doris McCarthy Gallery, U of T Scarborough
Drop-in, no registration required
spectrum soundbath is a communal and collective sound healing practice based in collaborative play. Marilyn Yogarajah facilitates the gathering using a variety of instruments and their knowledge of improvisational and classical music techniques. Everyone is welcome to participate and be curious. spectrum soundbath is programmed by Deepikah RB, in her role as Futures Educator-in-Residence.
Futures Observational Poetry Walk
Led by Sheniz Janmohamed
Saturday, October 25, 2 – 3:30pm
Doris McCarthy Gallery & Ma Moosh Ka Win Trail, U of T Scarborough
Registration required
Inspired by Futures, poet, educator, and nature artist Sheniz Janmohamed will lead an observational poetry walk through the Highland Creek Valley, with creative prompts that encourage reflection upon participants’ ancestral journeys and experiences with climate change: past, present, and future. At the end of the walk, participants will create their own nature art pieces as offerings to what has passed, and what has yet to come.
Artist Talk by Rajni Perera
Saturday, November 29, 3 – 4pm
Ralph Campbell Lounge, U of T Scarborough
Registration required, free shuttle bus available
Rajni Perera will speak about her work in Futures and provide insight into her practice exploring issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, migrant and marginalized identities/cultures, monsters and dream worlds.
Rajni Perera, I take a journey, you take a journey, we take a journey together, 2020. Leather, trim, cotton, beads, metallic thread, beeralu lace, rubber gas mask, 25.4 × 22.9 × 17.8 cm. Collection of Paul and Mary Dailey Desmarais III. Photo courtesy of the artist and Patel Brown.
Futures Educator-in-Residence
The Doris McCarthy Gallery Educator-in-Residence Program provides an early career arts professional with mentorship and resources in order to research, plan, and implement a schedule of programs and outreach for specific exhibitions and audiences. Residents use their own creative practices to engage with art and audiences in new and innovative ways.
We are thrilled to be working with artist Deepikah RB as the Educator-in-Residence for Futures. An award-winning Indian interdisciplinary artist practicing in T’karonto (Toronto), Canada, Deepikah holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from OCAD University (2024) and is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Studies at York University. Her practice interweaves nature, motherhood, and hope, prompting audiences to reconsider anthropocentric narratives amid ecological crises. Deepikah’s work highlights collaboration beyond humans, involving algae and bioplastics, focusing on nonhuman agency, regenerative processes, and multispecies kinship.
Doris McCarthy Gallery
University of Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4
416.287.7007
dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca
dorismccarthygallery.utoronto.ca
Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 11am to 4pm; Wednesday, 11am to 7pm; Saturday, 11 to 5pm. Admission is free. Open to the public. The gallery is wheelchair accessible.
Image Descriptions:
1) A portrait of a futuristic, six-eyed human figure with a dome-shaped building in the background. She has brown skin and wears richly coloured robes of gold, green, red, blue, and purple, embellished with varying diamond, striped, and floral patterns. She holds a mysterious golden ball in her hands.
2) A woman in white wears a rubber gas mask with an attached headpiece made of cream coloured fabric with a white lace trim. The mask is embellished with red, blue, and yellow thread, and white beads. A strip of black fabric with a golden floral pattern runs between the eyes.
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