Omar Badrin is an interdisciplinary artist born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Badrin obtained his MFA at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, where he was awarded a graduate medal for his work in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art Media and Design program. His practice is based on his personal history and examines identity formation through the lens of transracial adoption (i.e., the adoption of a child into a family in which the race of the adoptive parent(s) is different from their own). Badrin’s practice explores racial and cultural dynamics and affective states of his own upbringing: being a visual minority who was born in Malaysia, adopted by a white parent, and was raised in the predominantly white province of Newfoundland.

Badrin has been using the craft medium of crochet—which is very popular in Newfoundland—as a signifier for the province. Initially, the use of crochet symbolized a way of belonging to the province because of its rich tradition in the culture and in his own family. However, upon reflection and after accepting that he might not ever feel a sense of belonging, his approach changed. Badrin began to embrace the feeling of otherness through his making of grotesque masks that now serve to reveal, rather than hide.

Badrin has received project and travel grants from the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts. His work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada as well as at the 2022 Contextile - Contemporary Textile Art Biennial in Portugal. He currently lives and works in Toronto.