- City
- Toronto
- Booth
- Nathan Phillips Square
Booth 145
Kal Mansur
Kal Mansur (b. 1965) mines possibilities within abstraction, making a case for its plural nature. His work occupies a unique space that blends Western abstraction with a diasporic approach to colour. While he references minimalist traditions, his use of colour evokes an elsewhere – be it the global south or a desert plain in Texas.
"I use my work to tune visual perception," he says. "The work’s non-definitive nature allows it to vibrate like a tuning fork. The observer can decide whether what they see is in or out of tune."
Born in Chittagong in 1965 and raised on an air force base, Mansur witnessed bombings during the war of 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh. In 1975, his family immigrated to Toronto, Canada. He earned a BFA in Painting at the University of Texas in 1990. During his time there, he was mentored by Peter Saul, who advised him to "waste as much paint as you use," a philosophy that Mansur continues to embrace in his work.
Mansur’s work has gained wide recognition, and has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions in Toronto, New York, Ottawa, Doetinchem, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles. He has been commissioned to produce work for Tiffany and Co., Le Meridien New York, the Conrad Los Angeles, Bonjour Capital, and Fairmont Hotels. His institutional commissions include three large-scale acrylic sculptures at George Brown College, and one hundred acrylic sculptures at Toronto Metropolitan University. Mansur's work is included in the collections of Global Affairs Canada, TD Bank Corporate Collection, Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, Alliance Capital, and Senvest Corporation. His works were exhibited at the Canada Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020. He is represented by Myta Sayo Gallery in Toronto.
