Anne Griffiths | Mapping Nature
Anne Griffiths | Mapping Nature
March 5 - 30, 2026
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 5th from 5:30 - 7:30 pm | Artist in Attendance
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin is excited to present Mapping Nature, an explorative body of work by Canadian painter, Anne Griffiths. Using her unique and expressive visual language, Griffiths takes the viewer on a journey through the natural world as she sees it. Walking the line between abstraction and representation, Griffiths captures the emotionality of those experiences, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in its entirety. These works are catalogues of those journeys, seeking to provide inspiration for others to have their own.
Artist Statement:
With Mapping Nature, I sought to explore the experience of being immersed in a wild setting, navigating that visceral experience through careful observation and contemplation. The resulting body of work is intended to capture the sense of discovery that occurs when we allow ourselves to slow down and engage with the vibrancy and energy that nature has on offer.
As Tatum Dooley points out in her introduction to my new book "Mapping Nature," my work is like a map to places I have been. Although they are not maps in a literal sense, the resulting forms and trace lines between areas of the painted surface are an echo of maps I was drawn in my youth. I loved to illustrate the stories I wrote by beginning each piece with a carefully crafted bird’s-eye-view drawing of the places the reader was about to enter. I felt inclined to articulate these tales through visual clues, as an aide to the reader, allowing them to follow along my journey to places populated by wise mountain dwellers and ocean creatures who guided those brave enough to follow. I have carried that sense of wonder into my practice, both consciously and subconsciously.
It was not until I read Tatum’s description of my work that I recalled these earlier creations in my life and realised that my paintings somehow do feel like maps to the places I have journeyed. I find it quite amazing that this link to my inner child has been a line of continuity through my entire career, both as an art director and an artist.
Ultimately, if my paintings can inspire not only an emotional reaction in the viewer, but an appreciation of nature which will be everlasting, then I will feel that my practice is reaching something worthwhile. - Anne Griffiths
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Anne Griffiths’ studio practice is motivated by the expression of landscape through intuitive knotting of colour and form. Through gestural line work and an energetic colour palette, Griffiths creates spatial relationships and poetic interpretations of landscapes visited and then recalled in memory. She is interested in how we take a feeling of a place away with us in our memory, and how that energy can transform by playing with some level of abstraction in the rendering of a traditional landscape.
Anne Griffiths is a Canadian painter based in Victoria, British Columbia. She studied painting at Emily Carr University and received a diploma in design and illustration from Capilano University’s IDEA Program in 1986. Griffiths’ work has been shown in Canada, the UK and Europe in both solo and group exhibitions and has been placed in numerous private and corporate collections.