Dec 10, 2025
Ranbir Sidhu on Boundless Creation
The artist makes his museum debut at the AGO with three monumental metal sculptures
Ranbir Sidhu. Photo by Craig Boyko. Courtesy AGO.
Ranbir Sidhu fully embraces challenge. For the artist and sculptor, boundaries are merely an open invitation to make the impossible possible.
Sidhu brings this mindset to his aptly named exhibition, Ranbir Sidhu: No Limits. In his museum debut, Sidhu’s futuristic vision is realized at the AGO through three monumental works created for the exhibition: Asteroid 3033 X1 (2025), Fortress of Memory (2025), and Odyssey (2025).
Sidhu’s love of challenge goes hand in hand with his chosen material: metal. Growing up in a manufacturing environment, Sidhu was exposed to a variety of materials. He developed a particular affinity for metal because of the skill and expertise required to manipulate it. But beyond its lustre and malleability, there is also a deep poeticism that draws Sidhu towards working with metal.
“Metal speaks to me. It's strong, reflective, and timeless. Growing up, I saw how steel, aluminum and gold could transform, holding both precision and possibility,” he said. “Metal is unforgiving — it holds that memory. Metal lets me bridge the earthly and the cosmic, turning raw material into forms that carry stories across time.”
Installation view, Ranbir Sidhu No Limits, December 11, 2025 – January 3, 2027. Art Gallery of Ontario. Works shown Asteroid 3033 X1, 2025. © Ranbir Sidhu. Photo AGO.
Exploring time through metal is central to Sidhu’s practice. Much of his work is conceived through a futuristic lens, aiming to transport viewers across time and space.
“I call my works future relics – they're something that you may find many, many years from now,” Sidhu described.
At the same time, Sidhu’s work also keeps viewers grounded in both the past and present. He finds inspiration in everyday nature, from the veining on the back of a leaf to the geometry of azurite crystals. His work also draws from cultural memory. Fortress of Memory honours the 21 Sikh soldiers who fought against overwhelming odds at the Battle of Sargarhi in 1897. The 21 totemic forms that comprise this work reinterpret the Dastar Bunga, a type of towering turban worn by Akali Sikh warriors.
“There are elements of my cultural background that really influenced me as a child,” Sidhu said. “I weave that iconography into my works because it’s part of who I am. I want to transmit those memories into the future. Where these works land, they carry a piece of my heritage with them as well.”
Installation view, Ranbir Sidhu No Limits, December 11, 2025 – January 3, 2027. Art Gallery of Ontario. Ranbir Sidhu. Works shown Fortress of Memory, 2025. © Ranbir Sidhu. Photo AGO.
All three works in the exhibition are primarily crafted in mirror-finish stainless steel, Sidhu’s metal of choice. The centrepiece of No Limits is Asteroid 3033 X1, a luminous vessel that imagines bringing Earth’s essence into the future. The work was in part inspired by Modernist sculptor Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957), whose work sought out essential and simplified abstract forms.
“In conceiving Asteroid, I often thought about Brâncuși. His [works] are not depictions, but distillations that hold within them the idea of ascent, flight, and infinity,” Sidhu shared. “That pursuit of essence deeply resonates with me. Asteroid is shaped by a similar desire to distill—to create an object that is at once abstract and elemental, rooted in material craft and yet reaching towards a cosmic.”
Much like a real asteroid, Asteroid 3033 X1 is inscribed with a Widmanstätten pattern, a crosshatched design that naturally occurs on iron meteorites. Sidhu has also inscribed the work with his interpretation of what a Widmanstätten pattern might look like in a different galaxy, as well as hidden messages for viewers to discover. Asteroid 3033 X1’s grand presence is beyond scale; the sculpture pulses with light, held within a soundscape where ancient modal warmth meets electronic pulse and ether. The work also includes three portals that provide viewpoints into the sculpture’s interior.
“The aim is to bring the viewer into a space where the human and the cosmic, the timeless and the futuristic, speak to one another,” Sidhu explained. “There's no limit to our galaxy, and these portals [into Asteroid 3033 X1] are viewpoints into infinite space.”
Installation view, Ranbir Sidhu No Limits, December 11, 2025 – January 3, 2027. Art Gallery of Ontario. Works shown Asteroid 3033 X1, 2025. © Ranbir Sidhu. Photo AGO.
Starting with 3D renderings, it takes the interdisciplinary efforts of art, science, and engineering to make Sidhu’s ideas a reality. Asteroid 3033 X1 is the product of 500 different metal facets precisely engineered to fit together. Odyssey presented the engineering dilemma of balancing 5,000 pounds on four points, which was resolved with support provided by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC).
“No Limits came together from years of sketching, experimenting and building a team to push boundaries of scale and form,” Sidhu recalled. “Exploring these concepts and extending the limits not only within my imagination, but also in the actual physical realm of what's possible, has brought my practice and the skills of my studio to a whole new height.”
In imagining beyond the physical realm, Sidhu’s work also draws from the spiritual. Consisting of spires, Odyssey explores how religious architecture uses scale and height to tether humanity to the divine. The placement of the spires maps out the sacred journey of Guru Nanak Sahib (1469-1539), the work signifying both a spiritual cartography and a sculptural journey.
As part of the exhibition text, Sidhu has selected a cherished quote from Guru Nanak Sahib that he grew up hearing, which will be presented in both English and Punjabi.
"There are myriads of planets, solar systems,
and galaxies upon galaxies.
If one speaks of it, there is no limit, no end.
There are worlds upon worlds of creation.
As the creator commands so they exist.
The universe rejoices in its own existence,
contemplating its infinity.
O Nanak, to describe this is as hard as steel!"
— Guru Nanak Sahib
“The quote speaks to how there is essentially no end to this universe, and the more you speak about it, the further it becomes,” he emphasized. “Whenever I looked up into the sky at night, this quote played in my mind. Its import continues to shape how I make and think. There is no limit to what I'm able to create—the limit only exists in my imagination. If I can dream about it, I can create it.”
Ranbir Sidhu. Asteroid 3033 X1, 2025 (detail). Stainless steel, aluminum, gold foil, fibre optics, LED, crystal, Overall 365.8 × 388.6 × 779.8 cm. © Ranbir Sidhu. Photo: AGO
Sidhu hopes that visitors will also adopt this perspective after experiencing the exhibition.
“I hope No Limits shows people that there are no boundaries to what they can create. I especially want the younger generation to see that their ideas, whether inspired by culture, science or dreams, can take shape and become reality. I hope visitors walk away feeling the power of No Limits, ready to chase their own infinite universe, just as I did.”
Experience unlimited possibilities by visiting Ranbir Sidhu: No Limits, opening on Thursday, December 11, on Level 2 of the AGO in the Signy Eaton Gallery (gallery 224). On Friday, January 16, the AGO will be hosting an opening party for No Limits, included with general admission.
Ranbir Sidhu: No Limits was curated by Julian Cox, AGO Deputy Director and Chief Curator.
Contributing Sponsor
Soberman Goldstein & Associates Ltd. - tier 2
Generous Support
The Koolum Foundation
Contemporary programming at the AGO is supported by
