Nura Ali

Nura Ali, courtesy of the artist

Nura Ali is a visual artist, writer and curator, living and working in Calgary, Alberta. She received a BFA in Visual Art from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, a BA in English Literature, Art History and Italian from the University of Leicester and a BA in History from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her wide-ranging practice investigates the linguistic and cognitive scaffolding underpinning the ways in which we create meaning. Ali has shown her work across Canada and internationally, has received numerous awards and grants—most recently from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Arts Canada Institute, Calgary Arts Development and the Rozsa Foundation—and has taken part in various national and international residencies. When she is not curled up with a book or pottering around her garden, Ali is dreaming up ways to dismantle oppressive structures. For this reason, she became one of the founding members of the Vancouver Artists Labour Union, a unionized workers cooperative whose mission is to transform labour practices in the arts sector and create fair, equitable and sustainable working conditions for artists and cultural workers.