On reflection — 

In Alexander’s practice, the water reflection functions as both subject matter and  intermediary: one through which the artist enacts a visual intervention with the landscape to deconstructs the familiar and redirect the gaze towards features which might escape notice at first glance.

Working with source imagery that is distinctly transient in nature, Alexander describes the process of waiting patiently to witness instances in which environmental conditions — atmospheric and reflected light on the water surface,  set in motion by current and wind — align to create singular moments of elemental epiphany.

On Painting — 

As a masterful colourist, David Alexander’s expansive palette is often influenced by the locality and season and informed by his emotional response to place, be they the majestic, wide-open prairie skies, the fluid depths of Newfoundland’s wetlands, the tense verticality of B.C.’s old-growth forests, or the rambling mountain ranges of the Rockies.

According to the artist, winter scenes often appear black and white due to the stark and diffuse natural light. From this monochromatic scheme emerges a sketch-like gestural immediacy, one rooted in Alexander's affinity for and background in the drawing medium.

On seeing — 

 After repeated visits to a place, Alexander will oftentimes experience it with renewed sensory potency and heightened saturation, a familiarity which begets intensity. These illusory optics become accessible to the audience through the act of viewing Alexander's paintings. From jewel-like studies to canvasses that span one's field of vision; the dynamic texture, monumental scale and infinite variation of the Canadian landscape are rendered as richly layered compositions which resonate with expressive force.

Punctuated with high-key pops of colour, Alexander’s skillful mark-making highlights the less-trodden look and intact wildness of his preferred scenery, a startling foil to the picturesque images and pristine vistas that dominate popular conceptions of the Canadian landscape.

On place — 

Having lived in Vancouver and spent time in Steveston growing up, David Alexander became well acquainted with the coastal landscape early in life and started drawing at the age of 17 while working on a tugboat, where he adopted a habit of sketching his surroundings during long and slow sailings.

Alexander’s further connections to artistic life and the landscape painting tradition can be traced through his personal history to his grandmother, who was a painter in coastal France in the late 1890’s when the Impressionists lived and worked there. His mother, who lived in Victoria at a young age, would often visit Emily Carr for Sunday tea.

Alexander would continue his lifelong immersion in the creative sphere with his attendance at the Emma Lake Artists' Workshops, and his involvement in the Saskatoon artists’ community following his move there in 1980. For 23 years Alexander was a guest artist-in-residence at the Morris Graves Foundation in California among many other places, he has also traveled extensively for various projects and guest lecturing engagements. David Alexander was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2018.

For artist Lori Nix, the truth of the story lies in the details. In this interview, Nix provides a glimpse of her artistic process, from the phase of conception to the actual production of her imagined worlds.

1)  Where does your inspiration for your miniature interior environments come from? 

Both of us grew up exploring our rural environments. I grew up in Kansas and Kathleen grew up in Illinois. We spent a great deal of time playing and exploring barns, empty houses, and sheds. There was always something to look at, climb up or uncover in these spaces. We try to bring that sense of discovery and excitement to our photographs.  

2)  What draws you to dystopian scenes or the idea of “paradise lost”? Why do you think it is important for people to witness disaster? 

The apocalypse and the end of the world have always fascinated me. I watched all those dystopian movies of the 1960’s -70’s - Planet of the Apes, Earthquake, Soylent Green, Logan’s Run… so I have a soft spot for apocalyptic subject matter. As for witnessing disaster, I think many of us have the same fascination. When there is a car accident, we slow down to look and rubberneck. It’s the same principle. You are curious but also uncomfortable…kind of the visual equivalent of nervous laughter. And by making and presenting our work as model-based, it is a kind of “safe” way to look at these difficult situations.  

3)  What is one of the biggest challenges with working on a small scale with your dioramas? 

The biggest challenge is building the scenes realistic enough. Plants and trees are especially challenging as they have such subtle shifts of texture, shape, and thickness. But the challenge of problem-solving how to building something in a small scale is what keeps us excited by working in small scale.   

4)  Can you describe your creative process of bringing a project to life from start to finish? Is there a lot of research, sketching and prototyping involved? 

I usually come up with the initial idea and try to get Kathleen excited about it. We’ll start off by creating a private Pinterest board and gather images from the Internet for inspiration. Kathleen starts drawing the basic outline of the diorama. When we’re working on interiors, she sketches the room or rooms from the point of view of the camera. We determine the color palette and some of the materials we’ll need to build the diorama. Kathleen will grab her scale ruler and draw the scene to scale with matching measurements. I head to my computer and start purchasing the raw materials we’ll need for the scenes, such as basswood, paint, epoxy, styrene, acrylic sheet etc. We then determine the scale of a human figure within the sketch and print up a corresponding paper man to have on the worktable, so when we sit down to build items such as furniture, they will remain consistent throughout the many months we’ll be working on the diorama. 

We work in a variety of scales, sometimes 1:12, other times 1:8, 1:6 and all the way down to 1:160 and so on. The scenes we build today are mostly scratch built, but every once in awhile, we’ll find an item that sets the scale for the scene. Take “Anatomy Classroom” (The City)” for example. We purchased the skeleton that sits in the far corner. That determined the scale for the rest of the scene. We then divide up the work based on each of our skills. Because we have been working together for 19+ years now, we each have different roles in the creation of the work. I am the architect and Kathleen is the sculptor. I am responsible for hard surfaces such as walls, floors, furniture, buildings etc. Kathleen takes care of the detail items such as paint finishes, small props, and distressing everything. When the building is complete I set up the camera, lights, the background scenery and begin the process of capturing the final image. 

A diorama can take anywhere from three to seven months, but a few have taken as long as fifteen months. We work on two and three at a time.  

5)  What made you decide to present your dioramas in the 2D format of a photograph?

Both Kathleen and I come from 3D backgrounds. I studied ceramics alongside photography, and Kathleen had a degree in glass. Each of these disciplines takes major and expensive studio equipment in order to create work. When you leave the university system, the last thing we had is money to invest in a private studio.

But from the get-go, I’ve always enjoyed photography and the process of processing film and printing. After I left school, I went to work in various color photo labs for the next 20 years. Access to the equipment, surrounding myself with other photographers, created a natural path to turning our 3D tendencies into two dimensions. Also, I like how I can make the camera “lie” for me. I get chuffed when someone assumes our images are of real spaces,

6)  What is the most unusual item you have ever created from scratch? 

That’s a hard question. We really enjoyed making the viewers from the “Monument” scenes. Some of the weirdest might be some of the specimens on the shelves in “Anatomy Classroom”. There is a tiny severed hand, a colon, and a primitive stomach among other things.  

7)  Your work has a cinematic feel to it. Do you have a dream film that you would loved to dream up and create a scene for? 

For me, I think it would be fun to create something science fiction-like, such as a futuristic city. For Kathleen, she would go more towards the humorous Wes Anderson style.

VIEW ARTWORK BY LORI NIX HERE

Custom surrealist floral prints by Isabelle Menin, Bau-Xi's newest artist, adorn several looks from New York-based designer, Prabal Gurung's Fall 2020 collection. Gurung considers this season a celebration of New York, "its eclectic misfits and impossible dreamers." 

Menin is known for her intricate and evocative composite photographs, composed mainly of deconstructed floral imagery. Referring to her work as "disordered landscapes," each piece is created "in reference to nature’s strange complexity that looks [...] like human strange complexity." It is quite fitting that her work has been incorporated into a collection that honours the strange complexity of New York and its creatives.

Not unlike Menin's fine art practice, the textiles created for Gurung's collection utilize dark jewel tones and pastels. Through hand-cut silk organza petal embellishments, Gurung has brought Menin's work into the third dimension, affording dynamic movement to her surreal compositions.

A selection of Isabelle Menin's work is currently on display at Bau-Xi Photo as part of her inaugural exhibition with the gallery.

VIEW WORKS BY ISABELLE MENIN

Photographs copyright of Dan and Corina Lecca.