Exhibitions

Isabelle Menin | New Flora
September 10-24, 2022
350 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Bau-Xi Photo is proud to present an exhibition by the acclaimed Belgian photographic artist, Isabelle Menin (b. 1964, Brussels), featuring a selection from two new series Floating Angels (2021) and Cherubini (2022). Isabelle’s self-described “disordered landscapes” are comprised of numerous original photographs which showcase her skillful use of digital manipulation. They juxtapose lush, baroque-tinged light and composition with fragmented flora, punctuated by acidic shades for an ultramodern and sophisticated yet playful effect.

Menin is a graduate of the Graphic Research School (ERG) in Brussels and has exhibited internationally in art fairs and museums. Menin's works can be found in numerous private and corporate collections.

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Sheila Kernan | Real Places, Imaginary Spaces

August 20 - September 1, 2022

3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Canadian artist Sheila Kernan’s new solo exhibition, Real Places, Imaginary Spaces, highlights a collection of West Coast Canadian landscapes. Developed from a magical expedition, wandering through both the old-growth forests and the surrounding coastal beaches, the paintings include many upland habitats with an abundance of intertidal life.

Utilizing photographs, sketches and memories, Kernan carefully composes scenes based on real places. Her distinctive aesthetic is evident within the many layers found within her paintings. With bold forms, captivating colour combinations, and soft and textured brushstrokes, her approach to transcribing nature is undeniably one to see in person. 

Artist Statement:

I was enchanted by the expansive biodiversity within a small geographical region, both when investigating and exploring the old-growth forests of the Port Renfrew area and also the hundreds of species of plants and animals, not to mention rock formations, within Botanical Beach on Vancouver Island.

Finding beauty in these locations, reflecting upon the enduring trials and tribulations that each region faces, I was reminded of a quote I heard in a podcast: “Creativity has the power to look pain in the eye and to decide to turn it into something better.”

I find absolute beauty in the various stages of decay found in the forest - the smell of cedar and the colours of lichen blanketing the bark that is crumbling off some of the oldest trees on our planet.

This is representative in the many layers of paint I used within this collection. From thin washes where the paint is breaking down to pigments that pixilate into dots or watercolor washes, to thick, textural globs that are emblematic of icing on a cake, each brushstroke within my paintings works together to create a pattern of drama and variety.

It is abundantly clear that nature thrives within the tide pools on Botanical Beach, even though here they face some of the harshest conditions. I was captivated by the distinctive traits and many varieties of life forms found in each. Robin's egg blue, rosy pinks, brilliant greens, and oranges, set alongside and juxtaposed with muted rock formations and navy blue waters. It was immediately clear that I could spend a lifetime cataloguing and painting this small area. Each kilometer I walked, the colours, shapes and textures of the rocks morphed as the light shifted and changed from direct and bright to overcast and moody.

Art has the power and ability to take you somewhere, and I hope this collection showcases the effervescence of the West Coast. Each piece is from a real place, but became an imaginary space.    - Sheila Kernan 2022

CASEY McGLYNN | HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT
August 6-18, 2022 | Upper Floor Gallery 

3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Toronto-based artist Casey McGlynn's graphically rich mixed media compositions feature a blazing palette and pop culture references brimming with allegory, humour and satire.

Casey McGlynn grew up in rural Ontario, where he would sit in front of the television and draw on old grocery bags and scrap paper tirelessly, creating self-taught surrealist pop art. McGlynn attended the Ontario College of Art and Design; however, he was not enrolled in the visual arts. McGlynn’s work contains reoccurring symbols such as animals from his upbringing, birds from his studio windowsill and numbers that derive from when he memorized math tables in his early years. McGlynn’s work is as much about revealing the truth and expressing emotions as it is about documenting actual fact. Influenced by Jean Dubuffet, Cy Twombly, Basquiat, Marvel comic books, TV, and John Cassavetes films,  he creates symphonic glyphs in rudimentary, raw patterns, evoking rural Southern quilts with a pop/punk edge.

Since 1995, McGlynn has exhibited extensively in Canada, the United States and Europe. In 2005 he had a retrospective of his autobiographical work at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado. Today, McGlynn is firmly established as a critically important Canadian artist and a favourite among private collectors. With over 48 solo shows in Canada, the U.S. and Holland and innumerable international art fair shows, he remains as committed and passionate about his work today as when he first began compulsively drawing as a young child.  

Artist statement:

These paintings have been done over two periods in my life... before and after a big loss and recovery of self... can you, the viewer, discern which is which?... I have liberated my agency and control in my life... my empathetic nature has given me many blessings and many problems that aren't mine to solve... when I turned 50 I could suddenly decipher the difference... I'm on a road to happiness... will you hold my hand... I was called to painting when I turned 25... I've NEVER TURNED BACK    -Casey McGlynn 2022

Group Exhibition | Floreale
August 6-18, 2022 
3045 Granville Street , Vancouver; Main Gallery

Following our water-themed show Immersed, Bau-Xi is delighted to present Floreale, a group show featuring floral images that celebrate the summer season's peak of blossoming nature. The artists featured in this show have interpreted flowers in many ways, from contemplative, intimate and detailed to bold, sweeping and colourful abstract compositions. Let it bloom!

With artists Cara Barer, Jamie Evrard, Eric Louie, Isabelle Menin, Andre Petterson, and more.

Emerging Now | Selected Works from the OCADU Drawing and Painting Class of 2022
July 9-30, 2022 
340 Dundas Street West, Toronto; Upper Gallery
Opening Reception Saturday, July 9, 1-3 pm

Bau-Xi Gallery in Toronto is located in one of the most energetic artistic neighborhoods in the city, in part because of its close proximity to the esteemed OCAD University. For the month of July, a selection of works by recent OCADU graduates from the Drawing and Painting class of 2022 will be featured in our Upper Gallery. We are thrilled to have this emerging talent participate in our summer program.

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Michelle Nguyen | Prayer for Safe Passage
July 9-23, 2022 
Opening Saturday, July 9, 1-3 PM, Artist in Attendance
340 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Bau-Xi Gallery is pleased to present a new body of work by Vancouver-based artist Michelle Nguyen in the solo exhibition, Prayers for Safe Passage.
“All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.” — Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower

The title Prayer for Safe Passage indicates that a tumultuous journey has begun. It is not a journey one has willingly chosen to take, rather, one is violently tossed into a new reality. Ahead, the future is shrouded with uncertainty but there is no option to turn back. In these moments, one can find oneself turning to ritual and faith. In a world that does not subscribe to Cartesian coordinates or Enlightenment notions of rationality, one still looks to create order and meaning. Myth and spiritual structure are not just methods of coping but also a biological human need.

In her newest collection of paintings, Nguyen looks to explore how ritual and myth can simultaneously harbour and maim us. It can provide provisions for a depleted spirit, as well as a powerful method of bequeathing valuable ancestral knowledge. And yet, many of the quantitative forms of record keeping have a history rooted in violence and dehumanization. The nuance details of human life, often erased by a desire to mythologize. Our need to fit everything and everyone into archetypes and a monomythical story structure encourages us to limited ourselves to binaries, cause us to alienate those who do not fit our skewed and impossible ideals.

The show looks to call attention to the responsibility and stewardship we have to our own histories, and how we choose to record them. It is to serve as a reminder that fear can be inherited and a space can be wounded the way flesh can. We are all more than we are in this given moment, for it took many people across various timelines and histories to make us.

Born in Toronto and of Vietnamese descent, Nguyen lives and works in Vancouver after having received her undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia in 2016. Her work has been featured in publications such as NUVO Magazine, and Vancouver’s Mural Festival, she has been hosted in Centre Pompadour Residency in France.

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IMMERSED | Group Exhibition
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
July 9 - 23, 2022

The artists in our group exhibition Immersed are inspired by the life-giving element of water. Their works celebrate its shapeshifting, buoying and calming qualities in a myriad of ways. In our busy lives, these images entice us to give in to the ability of water to slow us down, to urge us to contemplate, be led in unexpected directions, and become more aware of our inner rhythm and quietest thoughts.

Nicole Katsuras | Summer Hours
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
June 4-16, 2022

This new body of abstract work by Nicole Katsuras is a reflection on learning to live more lightly, freely and joyfully, while looking forward to future adventures, big and small. Through her experimentation with paint, Nicole's works have evolved into highly textured, full-spectrum surfaces that explore femininity and reference cartography, Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and Ukiyo-e. 

Artist statement:

The title ‘Summer Hours’ sparks an emotional response to contemporary life, evoking times or moments of celebration from personal experiences, as well as memories of carefree and joyful times.  There is also a universal anticipation that accompanies the words “summer hours” – they suggest a period that is an accepted ‘break’.  Summer hours are synonymous with beaches, parks, backyards, road trips and adventured-to, faraway exotic lands. It is in these moments of unplugging, recharging and reconnecting with nature that we increase our appreciation for our personal paths and our loved ones.  

My process involves pushing and dragging the paint around on the canvas, and allowing it to dry into satisfying, detailed globs and blobs of stratified, marbled colours on the surface. These suggest landscapes, tapestries and floral elements in thick impasto.

-Nicole Katsuras
2022