Drew Burnham | Alive and Talking
Drew Burnham | Alive and Talking
July 9 - August 3, 2026
Opening Reception Thursday, July 9 , 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto | Main Gallery
This July, Bau-Xi Dufferin is thrilled to share Alive and Talking, the eagerly awaited exhibition by highly sought after Canadian landscape painter, Drew Burnham. Rather than simply depicting nature, Burnham seeks to communicate what he describes as the spirit or essence of a place, allowing each painting to evolve intuitively as he works. This approach gives his landscapes a dynamic quality in which forests seem to sway, water appears to pulse, and the entire scene feels animated by an inner life.
Artist statement:
From nuclear particles to grasses, trees, rocks, water and so on to us, the world is made. Although it may mystify us as to how beauty and sentience ‘become', it is this beauty and sentience which informs the works I do.
The only goal I have had, through the countless months spent on each of these canvases, is to create an image which passes the life force of the subject over to the viewer. Time was ignored; having taken these four paintings through a lengthy period of creation, refinement, and completion. Every request I received from the forming images has been considered.
It may be a tall order, but my wish is for the viewer to be taken into the realm where their spirit resides and resonates, on a deep level, with what they are experiencing.
- Drew Burnham, 2026
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Drew Burnham is a Canadian landscape painter best known for his distinctive, stylized realist depictions of the coastal landscapes of British Columbia. His paintings combine vivid colour, flowing glazed lines, and carefully structured compositions to create scenes that feel both recognizable and animated with rhythm and energy.
Burnham studied fine art and architectural rendering at what is now Emily Carr University of Art + Design and at the University of Victoria, and trained under respected Canadian artists Don Jarvis and Toni Onley. Burnham's work often focuses on forests, shorelines, islands, rivers, and small coastal communities, capturing not only their physical forms but also a sense of movement and atmosphere. His paintings blend realism with a graphic, almost architectural approach, using bold outlines and layered paint to give landscapes a luminous quality.
Over the years, Burnham has become one of Canada's most sought-after contemporary landscape painters, with numerous sold-out exhibitions and works held in private and corporate collections, including those of the City of Vancouver, the Edmonton Art Gallery, and Athabasca University.