Art for the community: Discover Jag Nagra

Based in Vancouver, Canada, on the lands of the Katzie, Kwikwetlem, and S’ólh Téméxw first nations, Jag Nagra is a multidisciplinary artist and a dedicated community member and activist. Raising a family with her wife and awareness on queer south Asian individuals, she has been working on a multitude of projects of all sizes.

If she didn’t know that design could even be a career before her brother started taking design courses at university, she managed to build her own despite the hostility of the field towards queer women of color. After an Arts Diploma at the University College of the Fraser Valley, she pursued an 18-month Advanced Graphic Design diploma program and graduated in 2006. Since then, she taught herself illustration and developed her activity as an artist, working on projects of her own from the very beginning. If it was hard at first to find her place in the field, she has since worked with big names like Vogue Magazine and The Vancouver Canucks.

Working as the Creative Director for the Punjabi Market Regeneration Collective was the project that impacted her the most. Developing the organization’s visual language pushed her to incorporate her culture into her art more, which she does through her beautiful digital illustrations. Celebrating her Punjabi heritage, Jag Nagra draws fierce dark-skinned women rocking tattoos with traditional apparel. Desiring to create a space for queer south-Asians individuals and offer representation, she has been dedicated to the community through her art and initiatives.

Jag Nagra has been involved in Sher Vancouver, a Canadian non-profit for LGBTQI+ South Asians. She worked on the organization’s branding and participates in the future length-documentary “Emergence: Out of the Shadows”, whose trailer you can watch down below.