The imaginative and forceful work of Permindar Kaur, alongside selected works from The Ingram Collection, will be on display at the Lightbox Gallery in Woking from November 15 to February 22.

Permindar Kaur is a significant figure in contemporary British art, known for her whimsical and thought-provoking sculptural installations staged in major solo, group and touring exhibitions across the UK and internationally.

Kaur’s work has gained critical and popular acclaim for its playful yet sincere approach to art, using childlike objects to explore themes and narratives linked to the concepts of memory and home. For people around the world, home can represent safety, be transient or even feel dangerous.

The artist also delves into the intersectionalities at play in our lives, examining how various aspects of identity - such as race, gender, class, disability and sexuality - interact and overlap to shape individual experiences. This perspective highlights how some people encounter multiple forms of discrimination at the same time.

Everyday items like beds, chairs and toys, drawn from familiar domestic settings, inspire the creation of dreamlike spaces brimming with storytelling potential.

These objects, resembling misplaced household belongings, are altered to evoke a strange sense of the uncanny. Though they may first appear to reflect innocence, childhood and play, they quietly reveal darker, more unsettling undertones.

Strange Bedfellows is curated by Permindar Kaur and includes work selected by the artist from The Ingram Collection.

Born and raised in Nottingham to Sikh parents of Indian heritage, Kaur pursued fine art studies at Sheffield City Polytechnic and Glasgow School of Art. She lived in Spain and Sweden before returning to the UK.

The Ingram Collection spans more than 100 years of British art and is one of the largest and most significant publicly accessible collections of modern British art in the UK, available to all through a programme of loans and exhibitions.