Kyle Scheurmann | Falling Stars Made of Ashes
Kyle Scheurmann | Falling Stars Made of Ashes
September 14-28, 2024
Upper Gallery
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
Opening Reception Saturday September 14, 2-4pm
Artist in Attendance
Artist Talk & Tour Sunday September 15, 1pm
Bau-Xi Vancouver is proud to present “Falling Stars Made Of Ashes”, the highly anticipated solo exhibition by Ontario-based artist and old growth conservation activist Kyle Scheurmann. This exhibition is the artist's inaugural solo exhibition with Bau-Xi Vancouver.
This seminal collection features the artist’s finest level of detail to date, as well as his masterful ability to poetically encapsulate the increasingly threatening predicament of Canada's forests and its inhabitants. Scheurmann never shies away from portraying the forest fires which he has increasingly witnessed, sometimes even using the ashes of old growth wood shards left over from clearcut sites as a medium on the canvas. The artist himself often appears in the paintings as a miniscule human presence in the vast and wild landscape, balancing high in a burning tree or teetering on the precipice of a waterfall along with his dwarfed cottage studio, attempting to do his part in the face of a Herculean plight.
Artist Statement:
There weren’t supposed to be any fires in this new exhibition. It was the one rule I tried to make for myself when I first started painting it four months ago. This show was supposed to be a celebration of the forest, colourfully overgrown and lush. Without a long research trip immediately preceding these new paintings - paddling old-growth or scouting fresh clearcuts - my plan was to revisit the places that have stuck out the most in my dreams from all the time I did spend in the forest over the last few years.
Then I woke up on May 12th, six weeks into painting this show, and smoke filled the air around my studio in Southwestern Ontario. I could smell it before I even opened my eyes in bed that morning.
At the time of writing this, I’m watching Jasper burn. A third of their community lost with more hot weather on the way.
It was naive of me to think I could open a show in Vancouver during peak fire season without hanging paintings that reflect our wildfire reality. That research trip I missed in the spring has now been scheduled around this exhibition, 3 weeks in the bush. But I’ve been watching the news, keeping my plans flexible. The Sooke fire is growing as I type and new fires keep popping up around Kelowna every day, who knows what the conditions will be when I start driving west in a few weeks.
So, despite my initial intention, I’ve been painting fires. On the hills above our homes, on the shorelines we paddle past and over the horizons we drive towards.
Let them remind you of our interconnectedness. Let them remind you that there is hope in community. Let each one serve as an urgent request to acknowledge the state of our land and our people.
-Kyle Scheurmann, 2024
VIEW THE FULL COLLECTION
September 14-28, 2024
Upper Gallery
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
Opening Reception Saturday September 14, 2-4pm
Artist in Attendance
Artist Talk & Tour Sunday September 15, 1pm
Bau-Xi Vancouver is proud to present “Falling Stars Made Of Ashes”, the highly anticipated solo exhibition by Ontario-based artist and old growth conservation activist Kyle Scheurmann. This exhibition is the artist's inaugural solo exhibition with Bau-Xi Vancouver.
This seminal collection features the artist’s finest level of detail to date, as well as his masterful ability to poetically encapsulate the increasingly threatening predicament of Canada's forests and its inhabitants. Scheurmann never shies away from portraying the forest fires which he has increasingly witnessed, sometimes even using the ashes of old growth wood shards left over from clearcut sites as a medium on the canvas. The artist himself often appears in the paintings as a miniscule human presence in the vast and wild landscape, balancing high in a burning tree or teetering on the precipice of a waterfall along with his dwarfed cottage studio, attempting to do his part in the face of a Herculean plight.
Artist Statement:
There weren’t supposed to be any fires in this new exhibition. It was the one rule I tried to make for myself when I first started painting it four months ago. This show was supposed to be a celebration of the forest, colourfully overgrown and lush. Without a long research trip immediately preceding these new paintings - paddling old-growth or scouting fresh clearcuts - my plan was to revisit the places that have stuck out the most in my dreams from all the time I did spend in the forest over the last few years.
Then I woke up on May 12th, six weeks into painting this show, and smoke filled the air around my studio in Southwestern Ontario. I could smell it before I even opened my eyes in bed that morning.
At the time of writing this, I’m watching Jasper burn. A third of their community lost with more hot weather on the way.
It was naive of me to think I could open a show in Vancouver during peak fire season without hanging paintings that reflect our wildfire reality. That research trip I missed in the spring has now been scheduled around this exhibition, 3 weeks in the bush. But I’ve been watching the news, keeping my plans flexible. The Sooke fire is growing as I type and new fires keep popping up around Kelowna every day, who knows what the conditions will be when I start driving west in a few weeks.
So, despite my initial intention, I’ve been painting fires. On the hills above our homes, on the shorelines we paddle past and over the horizons we drive towards.
Let them remind you of our interconnectedness. Let them remind you that there is hope in community. Let each one serve as an urgent request to acknowledge the state of our land and our people.
-Kyle Scheurmann, 2024
VIEW THE FULL COLLECTION