Draft:Mandeep Wirk

Mandeep Wirk is an Indo-Canadian writer, social activist, artist, and educator. She is best known for her writing and artwork. She was a Surrey Art Gallery artist-in-residence in 2015.

Early Life
Wirk was born in Kenya, but grew up in Tanzania. As a young girl her family immigrated to England in 1967. She developed her passion for painting in elementary school. She was a teenager in England, when her family decided to relocate to Canada in 1972. Her family settled in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Her family had a farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia that she worked on growing up. Wirk and her family arrived in Canada when multiculturalism focused policies were beginning. She has seen Euro-Canadians shift from being intolerant of non-white immigrants to socially accepting them.

Education
After completion of high school, Wirk attended the University of British Columbia where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. She also completed her training to become a teacher at the University of British Columbia. She graduated with a Master of Arts in Psychology from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. She has a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults.

Research
Wirk researched and investigated the nature and extent of intercultural friendships amongst female university students living in a multicultural Canadian city.

Work
Now retired, Wirk has taught English as a Second Language both in Canada and also in Japan. She was selected to be a BC Cultures Days Ambassador in 2015 for Surrey. As Culture Days Ambassador, she invited people to contribute to the community art project Surrey’s Vibrant Cultural Mosaic with mix-media collages. She wrote “ACT NOW on Reconciliation” for Rungh Magazine’s Vol. 5, No.1 issue in 2017. The article focuses on artist Cathy Busby, and her artwork WE CALL. Wirk wrote “Am I Dancing My Life Away?” in 2018, for Rungh Magazine’s Vol.6, No.1 issue. The article was a review of the reading of Chivalry is Dead by playwright Munish Sharma.

Select Works
In 2011, Wirk was one of six artists to be featured in the Surrey Art Gallery's exhibition “From the Land of Five Rivers “ which ran from May 13th to August 14th, 2011. The exhibition marked 100 years of India in Canada by showcasing local artists who trace their ancestry from Punjab, India. Her art in this exhibition was inspired by the 2011 centenary celebrations of The National Historic Site Gur Sikh Temple in Abbotsford and presented paintings done in Japanese watercolours and mixed media collages.

In 2015, the Surrey Art Gallery celebrated it’s 40th Anniversary with three exhibitions. The exhibition called “Re:Source – A Living Archive 1975-2015” featured the work of artists-in-residence Jim Adams, Polly Gibbons, Cora Li-Leger, Haruko Okano and Mandeep Wirk. Wirk made several collages for the exhibition with the theme of pluralism. Wirk’s initial collage depicted the multiculturalism the Surrey Art Gallery emphasized during it’s first decade. Wirk’s second collage showed the second decade of the Gallery, where Canadian culture shifted to become more diverse. Her third collage focused on Sikh artist Jarnail Singh whose art work was featured during the third decade of the Gallery. Her final collage featured pictures of boats adrift to highlight the global crisis of migrants.

Wirk was one of the artists selected to have her acrylic paintings shown at the Reach Gallery Museum for the 2021 and 2019 Fraser Valley Biennials. She has also participated in the Arts Council of Surrey juried Group exhibitions at the Surrey Art Gallery in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2024. In 2017, Wirk’s acrylic paintings, collage. and photography were featured in the “Passionate Colours” Group exhibition at the Surrey Art Gallery. In October 2019 – February 2020, a n award winning community curated group exhibition organized and developed by the Museum of Surrey, “Being Punjabi: Unfolding the Surrey Story,” presented Wirk’s mixed media collage Jarnail Singh’s Journey. Wirk’s paintings (acrylic:) Blueberry Harvest and Raspberry Harvest along with her short memoir story of growing up as an immigrant child on a raspberry farm during the seventies in Abbotsford were selected for the award winning “Des Pardes: South Asian in the Fraser Valley” community curated exhibition at the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford from October 2023 - June 2024.