Artist Feature: Tarun Godara
Finding the Beautiful in the Broken: Visiting Tarun Godara’s latest exhibition at the Art Gallery of Sudbury
Artist Tarun Godara
This week I had the pleasure of catching up with artist Tarun Godara and get a first look at his new exhibition, TARUN, now open at the Art Gallery of Sudbury. I’m a longtime fan of Tarun’s work, but this new collection is truly powerful—it’s tender, layered, and deeply personal.
The show features a large range of media from paintings and small clay pieces to large scale figures built from salvaged materials - things that once may have been considered trash but are transformed into a thing of beauty. At first glance, it’s all visually stunning, but after spending time in the space you can feel the complexity of the narrative being told through out the exhibition. That tension is exactly what Tarun is exploring: the way beauty and pain can live side by side.
“The exhibit is all about ‘what makes us human - our emotions, our trauma, our past, our hopes and aspirations, but also wanting to be free, wanting to be yourself, dealing with loss, loving yourself, just every aspect of being human.”
Tarun Godara - for Sudbury.com
The work reflects parts of his life as a queer, immigrant artist—experiences that come with both joy and heartbreak. The materials he uses carry that same duality. Discarded materials stitched together into something new. Delicate animal figures perched precariously on pristine white walls. You can feel the care and grief in every corner of the gallery.
There’s also a quiet bravery in this work. Tarun’s not just telling a story—he’s building spaces that hold vulnerability, strength, memory, and hope. And even though the pieces are deeply personal, they feel open, like they’re holding space for all of us who’ve felt in-between, or who’ve had to rebuild something after it shattered.
TARUN runs until April 26th at the Art Gallery of Sudbury (174 Elgin Street, Sudbury). The photos do the exhibit no justice, you need to experience it in person. It’s powerful, it’s tender, and it’s the kind of art that stays with you long after you leave the room.
