VISIT OUR CURATOR'S SELECTION PAGE TO VIEW NEW ARTWORK FOR ART TORONTO
October 28 - 31, 2016 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Join us: Friday October 29, 5-8pm for a special preview of Joshua Jensen-Nagle's forthcoming exhibition. Artists in attendance, artist talk at 6pm.
Our large booth at Art Toronto 2016 will feature a bold selection of new work by gallery artists. Previews are available in the month of October.
IMAGE DETAILS: Cori Creed, 'Waste Land,' 60 X 180 inches, oil, spray paint and wood on board
The ongoing threat to our precious oceans and waterways is the subject of the latest group exhibition at the Ferry Building Gallery. Bringing together environmentally charged works by Cori Creed, Tracey Tarling, Esther Rausenberg and Richard Tetrault, 'Reversing the Tide' endeavors to illuminate the destruction effacing Canadian waters.
'Waste Land,' a triptych by Creed, brings attention to conscious and unconscious destruction of the environment by humans.
"The act of deliberate destruction upon an item of perceived value (like a painting) seems repugnant, while the thoughtless, daily choices that collectively erode the health of our oceans are individually viewed as acceptable. On a literal level, “Waste Land” describes the conversion of our coast to a wasteland. The cliche of torched earth, the “growths” of charred driftwood adhered to the canvas. This small sacrifice made in the hopes that the viewer will find the effect jarring enough to question their relationship to the personal possessions that they invest considerable effort into keeping pristine as opposed to the natural assets that deserve more care and attention than they receive."
IMAGE DETAILS (LEFT TO RIGHT): Detail of charred wood used in Cori Creed's 'Waste Land'; Detail of tar used in Tracey Tarling's 'Reversing the Tide'
'Reversing the Tide,' a large scale mixed media and tar on board work by Tarling, seeks to question the responsibility that we have to water and it's necessity to life.
"All life moves through the perpetual cycle of water to air, land to sea and then back again. We pull it from the depths of the earth and walk great distances to draw it to us. All people create rituals and celebration around it. We continue to fight wars over it. Water is the thread that binds and sustains us all. Can we learn to become better stewards of this precious resource?
Look out for new works by both artists featured in our upcoming November exhibition, 'Through Forest, Sea and Sky' opening November 5 at Bau-Xi Vancouver.
IMAGE DETAILS: Tracey Tarling, 'Reversing the Tide,' 72 X 96 inches, mixed media/tar on wood
'Reversing the Tide' runs September 20 to October 16 at The Ferry Building Gallery
Left: After Sunset Lake Huron; Right: Four After Sunset Lake Huron Prints Rolled and Standing
Opening reception: Saturday October 15th, 2-4 pm, artist in attendance
Construct is a series of interventions on physical photographic prints by Toronto artist Chris Shepherd. Largely influenced by abstract expressionist painters and sculptors from the 1960s onward, Shepherd plays with his fascination for geometry, colour, and the reduction of subjects and surfaces to their essential forms. Through shredding, cutting, tearing, folding, crumpling and other processes, Shepherd re-configures his existing images into sculptural objects. These new sculptures are then re-photographed, resulting in an image that prompts viewers to re-evaluate the conventional language of photography. Views of sky, urban greenery, and industrial parking lots infuse Shepherd's experiments in medium with a distinct quality of the everyday. Memory, nostalgia, documentation and other established tropes of photography become secondary to form and object, activating dialogue about the very definition of the medium itself.
Much loved painter Kenneth Lochhead (1926-2006) is a fixture in Canadian art history, not least for his essential contribution to Canadian abstraction as a member of the celebrated Regina Five group during the 1960s. The later years of the artist’s career saw a creative turn to representation, when he explored the ways in which paint strokes could create “ideas, impressions, dynamics, and movements” on the canvas. During the 1990s, one of the artist’s preferred subjects was of course the body in motion, and Lochhead naturally chose the team he loved as his muse: the Toronto Blue Jays.
As the Jays prepare for an important wildcard match this evening, Bau-Xi Toronto is happy to showcase Lochhead's Blue Jays. Infused with the spirit of the game, Lochhead’s panels are also studies in form, colour, and texture that remind us of the artist’s well-deserved place in the Canadian canon.
Along with founding and facilitating the Emma Lakes artist workshops in Regina, Lochhead taught in Winnipeg and Toronto, eventually moving to Ottawa in the early 1970s. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1971, and the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts in 2006.
Photo of Bobbie Burgers in her studio by Kyrani Kanavaros
Plan to visit our booth at Art Toronto to view new paintings by Bobbie Burgers. The preview gala begins Thursday October 27th, and the fair continues until October 31.
VISIT BOBBIE BURGERS' COLLECTION TO CHECK FOR NEW WORKS LATER THIS MONTH
We love this pair of artworks by David Alexander and Andre Petterson, currently on display in our main gallery in Toronto. Petterson's "Hidden Chapters" draws compellingly on the artist's fascination with the typewriter motif, here multiplied to monumental effect. The mixed media on panel piece mirrors the graphic line work of David Alexander's "Pushing Through Greens"-- a complex canvas made up of reflected reeds and delicate, watery surfaces.
Artwork details from left: Alexander, "Pushing Through Greens," acrylic on canvas, 46 X 52 inches. | Andre Petterson, "Hidden Chapters," mixed media on panel, 72 X 48 inches.
Renowned American photographer Jeffrey Milstein recently documented several well-known locations in London, England. Creating striking aerial shots by photographing out of a helicopter, the results are skillful pieces that offer a stunning and unique view of these iconic landmarks.
VIEW AND ACQUIRE MILSTEIN'S WORK ONLINE
More images from London:
Scultpture shown is by Bobbie Burgers
Many Bau-Xi artists were recently involved with The Brain Project, developed as a catalyst for discussion and awareness of brain health.
The Brain Project held a public exhibition in downtown Toronto of the sculptures that will ultimately be sold to sponsoring organizations or collectors worldwide.
The brains will be auctioned off on October 17th, on Paddle8.com. Proceeds will support Baycrest Health Sciences, a world leader in brain health and aging.
Follow these links to view Bau-Xi artist’s brain sculptures:
As we prepare for Joshua Jensen-Nagle's much anticipated November exhibition 'Modern Leisure', here are some opportunities to see the new exhibition and meet the artist:
PREVIEW EVENT AT ART TORONTO:
Friday October 28th, 6-8pm, Booth A30
featuring artist talk and beverages
OPENING RECEPTION FOR 'MODERN LEISURE':
Saturday November 5th, 2-4pm
Bau-Xi Photo: 324 Dundas St. West
Show runs until November 22nd
CLICK TO PREVIEW JOSHUA JENSEN-NAGLE ARTWORK HERE
ABOUT MODERN LEISURE
Joshua Jensen-Nagle has long been fascinated with the rich, lusty history of European beaches. In Modern Leisure, Jensen-Nagle continues this exploration in his signature style, capturing sun-soaked vistas of European shorelines. Photographed from different vantage points, Jensen-Nagle’s scenes contrast the scattering of modern day bathers basking in the sun—leisurely escaping everyday life—with the dramatic ancient promontories, unique rock formations, and deep caves found on the coasts of Italy, Portugal, France, and Spain. The artist believes these photographs are not to be interpreted as documentation of places or people in time, but rather as views that stimulate the onlooker’s own emotional memories.
Jensen-Nagle has mounted over fifty exhibitions in the last 12 years, and is collected widely throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He bases his successful full-time art practice in Toronto.
Artwork details: 'Hardly A Landscape,' 2016, 36 X 48 inches, acrylic on canvas. ACQUIRE.
Bau-Xi Toronto is excited as new canvases by the impressive landscape painter David T. Alexander come into the gallery this week. Just stretched is the captivating 'Hardly A Landscape' (above), a subtle composition that sees Alexander exploring soft palettes alongside the universal and reflective subject matter for which his work is known. More by David Alexander will be available at our booth at Art Toronto, and for the artist's much anticipated solo exhibition this November.
Contact us for David T. Alexander preview opportunities, and view the current collection online here.
A glimpse of what to expect in the coming months:
1) What would you like viewers to feel or experience when they look at one of your paintings ?
A deeper connection to the experience of conscious life
2) You suffered a serious stroke when you were a young adult and this experience has clearly re-defined and changed you as a painter. Could you elaborate ?
Painting wise I went from being a predominantly figurative painter who worked in acrylics and was heavily interested in the darker aspects of the human psyche, to landscape painting with a heavy interest in consciousness, meditation, wellness, pure/true pitch or sound in colour's relational pattern vibrations etc .. I'm less interested in creating personal (cathartic/therapeutic) psychological work, and more interested in tapping into a deeper collective connection and evolution and creating from this place (if possible).
3) How is this exhibition different from some of your other exhibitions that have preceded it ?
The work has become quite abstract. Fellow artist Val Nelson called it "celestial" and on the surface it kind of is.
I've really been interested in the similarities between patterns found in nature under a microscope and patterns found in the vastness of space. Macro and micro. And somehow trying to depict those so called "polarities" or perspectives, and creating movement between the two on each canvas. Instead of painting left/right or forward/aft movement, I'm trying to create more of a 4th or 5th dimensional experience. Kind of a lofty goal but it's really interesting to try.
4) What is the most indispensable item in your studio ?
My dogs
5) Is there a colour you deplore or simply cannot use ?
Phthalo blue & phthalo green
6) You have gradually moved from painting primarily on wood panels to painting primarily on canvas. Why ?
I was at Windsor Plywood one day talking to one of the guys I'd gotten to know there. We were talking about the doorskin I used to paint on and he told me it was cut from old growth forest. That didn't sit well with me. Painting trees on old growth forest felt like such a massive act of betrayal. Especially after being up in Haida Gwaii in 2004 and seeing some of the big logging trucks driving into the bush and coming out with one big tree, hundreds of years old, on their flat beds.
7) What is your creative process like ? Do you start many paintings at once or work on them individually one after the other ? Does your concept of a painting at the beginning look like the completed painting or is it often a surprise ?
I meditate a lot. Most of the work is done there. I just get out of the way, sit and listen and let my brain do the work it loves to do. Then when my mind is clear and can articulate its vision ( for lack of a better word, I live with Aphantasea and can't actually "envision" anything), through all the cells and nerves and structures of my body, I get to the laborious part of painting. Sometimes I start many paintings now and sometimes I work on one for a longer time. Sometimes it looks like how it did when it began, just more evolved, and sometimes it looks totally different.
8) Do you ever encounter creative blocks and if so how do you overcome them ?
I don't believe in "blocks." I think this is an inaccurate use of descriptive language and a way of describing something that is not fully understood. If you need water, you go to the source and get some water. I realise this is a first world analogy, but for the sake of this metaphor, the water is always there. If there are obstacles in the way of getting the water, is that a "block" ? When someone says they have a creative block, in my experience, they are imagining they are in a desert, waiting for it to rain when they could just get up and go turn on a tap, drive to a spring, walk to a well. This isn't the desert.
Do the work, there is no block.
9) Is there a particular artist or artists, living or dead, that has made an impact on you or your work ?
Several. Early on it was Van Gogh, Francis Bacon, Turner, Braque and Cezzane. Sam Messer, especially his series on Jon Serl ( One Man By Himself ). Etienne Zack has had a huge influence on me and my work even though we paint nothing alike. Julie Heffernan is a massive influence although her work is figurative and more literal/psychological. Many of the Lenningrad School of painters, I look through their work very often. And Johann Groebner who is now in Vienna. Jay Senetchko, Kim Kimbro Taylor. When I was in NY I studied a few of the Valesquez paintings there for hours. Emily Carr's work too. And AY Jackson. Christopher and Mary Pratt, too. Visiting with Christopher in his studio in Newfoundland was really incredible. Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, I have so much respect for that man. And my paternal grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother was a Sunday painter and my grandfather made exquisite pen and ink drawings. I'm interested in making a contribution to the history of painting and am conscious to learn as much as I can from other painters but take that learning and develop it into my own style of communication or connection.
Impact for me can come from looking at the work or knowing the person who is making the work. Most often it comes from both.
10) Are there upcoming projects or a series you are excited to explore ?
Many. I'm currently writing three books (a memoir, a book of recipes and a children's book), and continuation in developing ideas in painting.
11) Regardless of the subject matter in your work over the years, there is an overarching sense of movement, a shifting light, and a current of energy running through the paintings.Is this something you intentionally try to create in each work ?
To me, in paint or in life, what else is there really?