Barbara Cole | Shadow Dancing
Barbara Cole | Shadow Dancing
October 10 - 31, 2024
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin, Main Floor Gallery
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Artist Talk and Q & A: Saturday, October 19th,11 AM - 12:30 PM | ARTIST TALK BEGINS AT 11:30 AM
This October, Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin is pleased to present Shadow Dancing by award-winning Canadian photographer, Barbara Cole. This feature showcases select works that embody the artist’s exploration of timelessness by utilizing the earliest form of photography: wet collodion. The artist captures moments of self-reflection, challenging the viewer to look beyond the sublime and search for a deeper meaning within.
Join us on Saturday, October 19th from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm at 1384 Dufferin Street for an artist talk and Q & A, hosted by Kyle Matuzewiski, the Co-Director of Bau-Xi Gallery. Guests will hear from Barbara Cole about her Shadow Dancing series and learn about the artist’s dynamic career. The artist talk begins at 11:30 am and light refreshments will be served.
Barbara Cole’s deep appreciation for historical photographic processes led her to create Shadow Dancing, a series that she began in 2011, in which she uses a 150-year-old technique: wet collodion.
“Embracing your shadow means accepting every part of yourself—the light and the dark. It's about recognizing your fears, flaws, and insecurities and integrating them into your whole being. This series depicts various scenes of models in motion, gliding through the picture, creating a beautiful, three-dimensional dance between light and shadow.” – Barbara Cole
The artist’s preference for using one of the very first forms of photography allowed Cole to slow down the overall process of creating a single photograph and spend significantly longer in the dark room. Cole almost shortens the distance between the past and the present by taking a primitive form of the photographic process and modernizing it by adding colour to the tintype, creating mysterious pictures of beige, gray and brown shades.
Throughout her career, Cole has worked internationally on commercial projects and has created several large-scale commissions, including installations for the atrium at the M. Lau Breast Cancer Centre in Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital. The artist’s work is included in private and corporate collections across Canada and internationally, including but not limited to the Bisha Hotel and Residences, Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts Houston Texas, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and Polaroid Corporation USA. She has also exhibited at the Canadian Embassies in Tokyo and Washington, D.C.
Cole has won prestigious awards such as the Grand Prize at the Festival International de la Photographie de Mode in Cannes, third prize at the International Photography Awards in New York, 2023 Canada Arts Council Research and Creation Grant, Commitment to Service Award (Mental Health Advocacy) from Give an Hour, and Swim Drink Fish Ambassador supporting clean water initiatives in Toronto. In 2012, the acclaimed documentary series Snapshot: The Art of Photography II featured an episode devoted exclusively to Cole’s photographic practice.
Beyond her professional accomplishments, Cole is a passionate mental health advocate. The artist uses her practice as a platform to raise awareness about the stigma surrounding mental health and spotlight the strength and resilience of women.