Abedar Kamgari

Abedar Kamgari is an artist based in Hamilton and Toronto. In her art practice, Abedar unpacks the contexts and conditions of displacement and diaspora using site-responsive, durational, and relational approaches. She is deeply influenced by performance art and her pieces often emphasize and question the presence, absence, movements and responsibilities of bodies in relation to land and labour. Her current projects explore body memory, complicated inheritances, and the idea of distance, inspired by a play written by her father and garments passed down from her grandmothers.

Her art practice informs her work as a curator, writer, and arts worker. Abedar has developed programs on diasporic methodologies, performance art, race and the politics of inclusion, and contemporary art and gentrification. Abedar holds a BFA (2016) and an MFA (2022) in interdisciplinary studio and has performed, screened, and exhibited in a range of institutional contexts.

Visit: abedarkamgari.com or @kamgara on Instagram

Email: abedar@savac.net

Sophie Sabet

Sophie Sabet is a visual artist working in video, sculpture and installation.

Visit: sophiesabet.com

Email: communications@savac.net

Heather Canlas-Rigg

photo by sarah bodri

Niyash Mistry

Niyash Mistry is a curator and the founder of Art Manzil, a South Asia-focused visual arts platform that curates art projects both commercially and in partnership with cultural institutions. He develops longue-durée curatorial projects that situate contemporary South Asian artistic expressions within relevant spatial, temporal, and discursive frameworks, while critically examining established hierarchies and categorizations. Niyash is deeply committed to nurturing and expanding the community of collectors dedicated to global South Asian art.

Elham Fatapour

Elham Fatapour is a Toronto-based visual artist and completed Master’s in Fine Arts at York university 2020 that was awarded a Joseph Armand Bombardier Scholarship from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research
Council of Canada. Her recent works include painting, performance, and mixed media installation. They address diverse but interconnected subjects, including satellite usage, surveillance, vernacular architecture, modes of communication, and empathy.

Her ongoing ‘homemade satellite dishes’ series was the winner of the 2022 biennial art prize for the Surveillance Studies Network Conference and was presented at Rotterdam Erasmus University in June of 2022.

Aman Sandhu

Aman Sandhu is a Montréal-based artist and PhD candidate in the Humanities and Fine Arts at Concordia University. His work spans drawing, sculpture, installation, and research, focusing on labour, improvisation, and the institutional conditions of cultural production. A long-time participant in the community around South Asian Visual Arts Centre, he brings a commitment to artist-run culture and critical support for racialized artist

Sharn Bassi

Sharn Bassi is a Toronto-born visual artist working primarily in abstraction. Her work explores identity, cultural inheritance, and the space between visibility and silence through layered forms and contemporary visual language. Alongside studio work and exhibitions, she also creates public art projects that bring contemporary art into everyday spaces, reflecting her belief that art should remain accessible and rooted in community.

Alongside her studio practice, Sharn brings more than a decade of experience as a technology founder and strategic advisor supporting organizations through growth, leadership transitions, and governance development. She has advised founders who have collectively raised over $200 million in capital.

She joined the SAVAC Board to support the organization’s mission of amplifying contemporary South Asian artistic voices and strengthening the infrastructure that allows artists and communities to thrive.

Irum Chorghay

Irum Chorghay (they/she) is a settler poet of South Asian descent writing on Treaty 13 Land in Tkaronto/Toronto. They are currently completing an MA in Adult Education and Community Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where their research focuses on co-operative and community-led cultural and economic infrastructures. Irum is the co-founder of The Decom Post, a youth-led free, print newspaper on Toronto’s local food systems rooted in food sovereignty and Land Back principles. Their work can be found in Canadian publications including Herizons Magazine, The Capilano Review, and Silverfish Magazine.

Nageen Shaikh

Nageen Shaikh is an independent book editor, art historian, and critic. Presently, she is the Associate Editor at The Karachi Collective. Her work examines processual knowledges, materialities, and conditions of productions in artmaking. She has experience in arts management, donor solicitation, and youth counselling for non-profit arts, educational, and culture organizations, and undergraduate teaching. Her research and criticism have appeared in Hyperallergic, C Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, The Karachi Collective, Dawn News, Journal of Art and Design Education Pakistan, Gulgee Museum: The Handbook, and others.

Jagroop Mehta

Jagroop Mehta is a cultural leader and curator working at the intersection of contemporary art, public engagement, and community building. She brings extensive experience across the public, non-profit, and commercial art sectors, including senior leadership roles at leading South Asian-focused galleries such as DAG and Aicon, where she worked closely with artists and institutions to expand the visibility of modern and contemporary South Asian art internationally.

Her work is grounded in a commitment to creating inclusive cultural spaces that foster belonging, dialogue, and connection. Born and raised in the UK, she has also lived and worked in Mumbai, where she served as Director at DAG, and has led major curatorial and partnership initiatives that bridge institutional, curatorial, and public audiences. She also co-founded and led her own arts consultancy for many years in the UK.

Alongside her curatorial practice, Jagroop is actively engaged in the public sector in Canada and has worked with a municipal capacity, where she focused on strengthening cultural access and community engagement. She has led a number of federally-funded national initiatives in Canada where she has contributed towards building a more robust, inclusive and sustainable arts sector.

She serves on the board of SAVAC, contributing to its mission of supporting South Asian artists and advancing critical conversations in contemporary visual culture. Her practice is shaped by a belief in cultural institutions as spaces of shared learning, care, and civic connection, with a sustained interest in how art can support more equitable and connected communities.