Karanjit Panesar

Very cool to see this review of 'Furnace Fruit' in @friezeofficial "...the works on display are like seeds in a pomegranate, combined in jewelled unity, as personal reminiscences intersect with histories of empire." Thank you @crystalbennes for the sensitive & understanding take on the show. We had a good chat about something that is on my mind a lot - the (self-)instrumentalisation of identity in service of art (& capital) and the frustration of having to navigate both the expectation to make work about yourself and the desire to do so. "In a context in which Western institutions frequently encourage minoritized artists to instrumentalize their identities for cultural consumption, Panesar’s refusal to do so becomes – like Persephone’s movement between two worlds – a partial reclamation of agency that is both generative and transformative." Link to the full review in bio ! The show runs until 15 June @leedsartgallery 🙏🏾

Untitled (portrait of Fidel, 2017), 2025 Edition of 3 Etched mild steel, 21x28cm Fidel was one of 4 doves that I kept for around 9 months in 2017. They lived in my garden shed that I'd converted into their coop; I would open the shed door every morning and they would fly big laps around the house and neighbourhood before coming back. There's a longer story that I'll save for another time, but for now you can win one of these in @hydeparkartclub 's fundraiser raffle in support of @doctorswithoutborders work in Gaza 🇵🇸 The raffle is TONIGHT 17 December, get your £5 tickets from HPAC

A privilege to be on the @leedsfilmfest jury this year in the Documentary Shorts category. There were some excellent works to choose from - winner announced tonight ... Shout out fellow juror @cherishoteka 🙏🏾

Money's a big one isn't it. Especially in 2025 in the cost-of-living, g£n0c1d€-financing, xenophobe-enabling, forever-arts-cutting yookay It's tempting to spend this award on materials and studio stuff but I'm increasingly seeing that this whole art thing might just eat me alive, and that i should probably spend the money on bills, new clothes, nice orange juice, and whatever else other people spend their money on. A friend recently said to me "Money's your freedom isn't it?", and they were right. My sister recently said "I know you love doing art but it really stresses you out, and you don't have any money", and she was right too. Anyway, I'm working on some new stuff in the studio so watch this space. It's gonna be REALLY expensive. Sincere thank you to @henrymoorefdn_grants and my nominator (who will remain anonymous). In great company with friends from the SW and West Yorks ❤️ Pictured is 'England's Black Terrain' 2024 from my show Furnace Fruit at @leedsartgallery EDIT: unfortunately I have not been given 100k, it is split between all 50 recipients

Village & HPPH are pleased to present a special screening and in-conversation with artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers @riversbenfilm , to mark the recent launch of Rivers’ Urthworks book, published by MACK @mack_publishing Join us at 6pm on Fri 12th September at @hydeparkph . Pay What You Can tickets are now available via HPPH.co.uk or through the link in their bio. Adapted from Rivers’ Urthworks film trilogy, the book takes the form of a visual novel set on a future planet, imagined across three distinct stages following environmental collapse. Interwoven with texts by acclaimed science fiction writer Mark von Schlegell, Urthworks merges speculative storytelling with visual experimentation. The evening will include a screening of two Ben Rivers’ films – Slow Action (2010, 45mins) and Urth (2016, 19mins) – followed by an in-conversation between Rivers and Leeds-based artist Karanjit Panesar @karanjitpanesar 18:00: Doors 18:20: Intro 18:25: Film screening: Slow Action (2010) & Urth (2016) 19:30: Conversation + Q&A 20:00: Book-signing in foyer Programme: Slow Action (2010, 45 mins) A post-apocalyptic sci-fi work that blends documentary, ethnography, and fiction. Set on Earth in the distant future, where new islands and archipelagos have been formed after catastrophic sea-level rise, it re-imagines the remnants of civilization. Urth (2016, 19 mins) A reflection on isolation, sustainability, and human ambition, inspired by the experimental ecological project Biosphere 2.

‘As a child on a visit to see family in India, I remember sitting under a relative’s pomegranate tree and feeling this profound sense of dislocation – a mix of belonging and un-belonging. It was a complicated experience that has stayed with me since.’ @karanjitpanesar @corridor8 Did you see our recent exhibition Karanjit Panesar: Furnace Fruit? We are delighted that the sculpture Double fruit (2024) from the exhibition has now been acquired for the collection of @leedsmuseumsandgalleries with the support of a grant from the Leeds Art Fund. Furnace Fruit presented a new body of work by artist Karanjit Panesar which stemmed from his research into the Leeds Sculpture Collections at Leeds Art Gallery and @henrymooreinstitute together with the oral history collections @britishlibrary and Bradford Industrial Museum. The exhibition took as its starting point the story of migrant labourers from Punjab – including members of Panesar’s own family – who came to the UK and found themselves working in automotive foundries in the 1950s and 1960s. ‘The pomegranate in the exhibition is cast in the iron of a melted-down car exhaust. I wanted this act of transformation or shapeshifting to be at the heart of the work – it was a way for me to work with history, to reshape it rather than just present it.’ (Panesar, 2024) Conceived in response to plaster and bronze casts of fruit by the sculptor Bernard Meadows held in the collection of @leedsmuseumsandgalleries Double fruit was presented in the exhibition as a tactile object in dialogue with Meadows’ casts of fruit and fragments of sand-casting moulds from West Yorkshire Foundries. In the two-channel film Furnace Fruit (2024), we witness its creation in the W.B. White Foundry in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, as industrial casting methods are used to transform the cast-iron exhaust manifold into a pomegranate in metal form. For the film’s protagonist, it is ‘a double fruit, even parts metal and memory’. Installation views of Karanjit Panesar: Furnace Fruit at Leeds Art Gallery, 2024. © Karanjit Panesar © The Estate of Bernard Meadows Photos @rjbattersby

Last chance to see Karanjit Panesar: Furnace Fruit at The Hepworth Wakefield’s @ysi_sculpture partner @leedsartgallery . Named ‘one of the best shows to see across the UK’ by @friezeofficial , the exhibition in Leeds closes on 15 June. Inspired by the collections of the British Library and Leeds Art Gallery, Furnace Fruit, by Leeds-based artist @karanjitpanesar , is a mixed-media exhibition centred around new moving image work. Panesar is the recipient of the 2024 Collections in Dialogue co-commission from the @britishlibrary and Leeds Art Gallery. The resulting artwork, Furnace Fruit, is based on his research into the Leeds Sculpture Collections at Leeds Art Gallery and the @henrymooreinstitute , together with the oral history collections at the British Library and Bradford Industrial Museum. Drawing on Panesar’s research into these collections, Furnace Fruit takes as its starting point the story of Punjabi immigrants – including members of the artist’s own family – who found themselves working in British foundries in the 1950s and 60s. Central to the exhibition is a film that weaves together writing, tableau shots of a performer in and around the artist’s car, and footage captured in an industrial foundry. In May, @forarthistory highly commended Panesar, @gwyn_grange (Freelance Curator and former Exhibitions Curator, Leeds Art Gallery), @clare_nadal (Assistant Curator, Sculpture, Leeds Museums and Galleries / Henry Moore Institute) and Kenn Taylor (Lead Culture Producer North, British Library) for Karanjit Panesar: Furnace Fruit. To mark the end of the exhibition, @hydeparkph in Leeds will be holding a special screening and in-conversation event with Panesar on Monday 16 June at 6.30pm. Visit HPPH.co.uk/furnace to reserve your seat. museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk Images: Artist portrait courtesy Karanjit Panesar / Installation view of Karanjit Panesar: Furnace Fruit at Leeds Art Gallery, 2024–2025, © Karanjit Panesar; photography @rjbattersby . #KaranjitPanesar #LeedsArtGallery #HenryMooreInstitute #YorkshireSculptureInternational #LeedsSculptureCollections #BritishLibrary #Sculpture #Film #Leeds #WestYorkshire #Partnerships

Last chance! There’s just over a week left to visit our exhibition Karanjit Panesar: Furnace Fruit which closes at Leeds Art Gallery on Sunday 15 June. Inspired by the collections of @britishlibrary and Leeds Art Gallery, Furnace Fruit is a mixed media exhibition centred around a new two-channel film. A pomegranate fruit, cast in iron melted down from a car exhaust, appears both in the film and in the exhibition space as a tactile object. In this excerpt from the film about our exhibition, artist Karanjit Panesar explores the significance of the pomegranate fruit. Watch the full film via the link in our bio or on our YouTube channel at /watch?v=mCuynPMgXt0 To hear more from the artist, join us for a special screening and in conversation event @hydeparkph on Monday 16 June at 6.30pm in collaboration with @pavilion_leeds . Tickets are Pay What You Can, with a £0 ticket option to ensure the event is open to all. Book your ticket via the link in our bio or go straight to /films/furnace-fruit Karanjit Panesar is the recipient of the 2024 Collections in Dialogue co-commission from the British Library and Leeds Art Gallery. Film: @im_minyung