Arkah is a migrant from Delhi, India, currently living on stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples. They are an emerging visual artist and writer- making and coping by any means necessary. Currently they have an ongoing studio practice in Vancouver. When in Delhi, they have worked as a children’s art teacher, as well as a muralist. They received their Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2024. Their work has been presented at Artspeak Gallery, as well as Centre A: International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.

One of Arkah’s many written companions includes Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire; “The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity”. If hope is a responsibility of the oppressed, then their work considers itself to be hopeful, imaginative, and never alone.

About the work

My work explores themes of the body and how it relates to land, dispossession, and borders. I’m interested in how our bodies function as a container for our memories, and physical pains, making the many forms and feelings of the body part of the material itself. I often use gesture drawings as a way of documenting my relations to the land I reside on, as I am. In doing so, queerness and disability present themselves as part of the work.

I work with a wide range of materials; acrylic, watercolour, ink, charcoal, colour pencil, chalk, oil pastel, graphite, needle and thread, rain and dirt- often all layered on one surface. My creative writing practice accompanies my visual work, often in the form of letters, and stream of consciousness styled poetry.

Though much of my practice archives the difficulties and limitations of becoming a racialised and politicised body, it also imagines another world. One where these very restrictions are the catalyst for change and imagination.

Solo Exhibition

2025 “Pencilled in and Eager, with my head in the sand” Special presentation at Artspeak Gallery

Group Exhibitions

2025 “Portals” for Queer Arts Festival at Centre A Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
2023 “Girl Twink Boy Dyke” at The Neighbourhood Gallery, Emily Carr University
2022 “Crawlspace” at Micheal O’Brian Exhibition Commons, Emily Carr University

Artist Talk

2025 “Pencilled in and Eager, with my head in the sand” Artist Talk with Maliv Khondaker at Artspeak Gallery

CV (pdf)