Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) will present Rupinder Kaloti: The Gathering, on view September 26, 2026 through February 28, 2027, marking the museum debut of Punjabi-American artist Rupinder (Rupy) Kaloti. This vibrant, large-scale exhibition reimagines the immigrant experience through a lens of joy, intention, and spiritual inheritance.
Rather than focusing on immigrant struggle, The Gathering portrays what emerges after – an expansive, vivid world shaped by resilience, ritual, and ancestral connection. Kaloti’s work is rooted in the esoteric belief that souls choose their families, and she depicts this choice as an act of cosmic intention throughout the series.
Kaloti builds a personal mythology throughout the exhibition, which spans visually from Punjab, India, to East San José, California. Recurring motifs, including a guiding star, rainbow, and a powerful tiger figure inspired by her grandmother, act as a symbolic throughline across the exhibition. The tiger, in particular, embodies protection, strength, and the transformative force required to build a home in unfamiliar land.
Throughout the exhibition, fire appears as a recurring element, not as destruction, but as transformation. Homes blaze and persevere, illuminated rather than erased, reinforcing themes of survival, evolution, and appreciation for those who came before.
Kaloti’s practice extends beyond narrative into form. Working on custom, hand-cut wood panels, she breaks from traditional rectangular canvases to create paintings that resemble architectural fragments or altars. Her saturated color palette, drawn from Punjabi textiles like saris and phulkari, fills the work with vibrancy and brings visibility to histories often overlooked.
This solo exhibition was awarded to Kaloti for her compelling piece, “Fire Raiser,” featured in the 2024 juried exhibition at OMA, More Disruption: Representational Art in Flux. The Gathering will be celebrated with a public Exhibition Celebration on December 5, 2026.
About Oceanside Museum of Art
Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) is a non-profit organization that began providing exhibitions and public programs in 1995 as part of their mission to bring people together to explore the art and stories of Southern California artists. OMA’s exhibition program is dynamic and robust, surprising visitors with a fresh and exciting visual experience nearly every visit. In addition to these boundary-pushing contemporary art exhibitions, OMA’s programming includes youth education programs, adult art classes, concerts, films, and creative community parties and events that appeal to locals and tourists alike. The OMA experience stimulates imagination, presents new ideas, and challenges the familiar in a welcoming environment for those new to art, longtime museum-goers, artists, art students, or simply the curious. For more information on Oceanside Museum of Art, visit www.oma-online.org
