Meenakashi Ghadial (b. 2001) is a visual artist and educator from Brampton, Ontario currently based in London, England. She creates representational oil paintings on non-traditional substrates that explore themes of marriage, love, intimacy, grief and sexuality. She presents the car as a multifaceted liminal space that functions as a safe space for her as a queer Punjabi-Canadian woman. Her inspiration draws from personal experience navigating her queer identity as a second-generation immigrant in her family. Through the use of current documentation as well as archival family material, Meenakashi creates narratives that explore the particularities of intergenerational experiences.
Ghadial received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) with a Minor in Art History, as well as a Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University. She recently completed her second artist residency in Kingston at the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning from April - June 2024 where she explored themes of tradition, marriage, and queerness through more interdisciplinary approaches. She has showcased at multiple galleries in Toronto, Kingston, Mississauga, and Brampton, and was a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Award in 2022. Meenakashi is currently working towards starting a new body of work inspired by her recent trip to Punjab, her motherland, that encapsulates new ideas of home and belonging.
