Exhibitions

GEORGE BYRNE | SYNTHETICA
UPPER GALLERY
NOVEMBER 8-26, 2025
Opening Reception: Sat. November 8, 2-4 pm
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver


Bau-Xi Vancouver is thrilled to present Synthetica, the latest solo exhibition from acclaimed photographic artist George Byrne for its inaugural showing in Vancouver, following its Toronto debut in July 2025 at Bau-Xi Dufferin. 

Fusing analogue photography with digital innovation to reimagine the American landscape, Synthetica is rooted in Byrne’s early influences from the New Topographics movement and marks a striking evolution in his practice. Where once he documented, he now deconstructs and rebuilds - layering, subtracting, and collaging until a new reality emerges. The result is a collection of surreal yet grounded dreamscapes, where the ordinary is elevated and the boundaries between the natural and the artificial dissolve. From Daytona Beach to Yellowstone, Synthetica is both a visual journey and a conceptual inquiry, exploring the way we perceive, manipulate, and emotionally respond to our environments in a hyper-mediated, AI-inflected age.


Artist Statement:

This series explores the tension between the natural and the artificial, challenging preconceptions of reality in an increasingly digital age, while also paying homage to my analogue photographic roots. Starting out as an artist, I was very much a student of the New Topographics photographic movement, a style based on the artist's neutral eye, famous for documenting the mundane structures of post-war America. About 5 years ago, I started to become interested in employing various forms of manipulation and digital reconstruction into the work I was making. As a result, the images were able to become more expressive and introspective: a bridge between my subconscious and conscious.  

Each image in the Synthetica series started as a medium format film photograph, then, through a process of addition, subtraction, collage and endless reevaluation, a new completed image is born. The foundations of a lot of the images in this series were taken over the last few years during road trips I took around the United States. From Daytona Beach to Yellowstone National Park, these were both natural and man-made landscapes - places I'd never been.

– George Byrne, 2025


On Synthetica's inaugural showing in Vancouver:

I’m really excited about the opportunity to show this body of work at the beautiful Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver. Synthetica is a pivotal series for me because it crystallises a decade of living and working in Los Angeles. It’s where my process of reassembling fragments of the urban environment found its fullest expression, fusing photography with a painterly sense of rhythm and colour, and pushing the work into a more mysterious, emotionally charged space.

What I hope people take from it is a pause, a chance to re-see the familiar city in a new way, to feel the rhythm, colour and stillness within it. For me the work is about finding a kind of beauty and mystery in the overlooked, calm in chaos. I’d love for viewers in Vancouver to tune into that frequency too.

-George Byrne, 2025

VIEW GEORGE BYRNE'S FULL COLLECTION

Sheri Paisley | When You Were the Sea
October 4-16, 2025
Main Level Gallery
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 4, 2-4pm
Artist In Attendance


Bau-Xi Vancouver is proud to present When You Were the Sea, BC-based artist Sheri Paisley's new solo exhibition in which she explores the quiet power of the Pacific coast. Based on the remote haven of Ucluelet, BC, these new paintings reflect the ocean not as a subject, but as a presence: something that lives both around and within us. Drawing from the colours and textures of the region - driftwood, kelp, and shifting weather - Paisley captures the emotional undercurrents of memory, connection, and place. These richly layered atmospheric works invite viewers to slow down and consider the true depth of our interconnection with the natural world.


Artist Statement:

Most days on the West Coast, there’s a clear awareness that the ocean isn’t a separate body. Its powerful presence is both external and very much internal - a visceral reminder that the majority of our makeup is water.

When You Were the Sea is a body of work born in the often fog-thick quiet of Ucluelet, BC, where the ocean presses in from all sides and time unspools like the tide. These paintings are not literal seascapes. They are embodied emotional weather maps - impressions of the sea as it moves through ancient cellular memory, inter-relationship, and the recognition of life as interconnected energy.

I paint in layers - thin veils and gestures that accumulate like panes of glass, each holding its own version of the world. The palette is drawn from ocean-soaked driftwood, high-tide kelp, and the shifting clarity of weathered Pacific light: variations of warm and cool blues, quiet rainforest greens, and unassuming greys that hum at the edge of recognition. Each mark is an act of belonging - a way of placing myself in space.

I’m interested in what’s barely there - the space between form and feeling, water and skin, presence and loss. The paintings ask:

What parts of you are shaped by the tide?
What do you still carry that belonged to someone else?
Do we end where the sea begins?
This series offers no answers - only places to return to, like an expansive, outgoing tide after a storm.

– Sheri Paisley 2025


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Kathryn Macnaughton | Undercurrents
October 9 - November 3, 2025
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Opening reception: Thursday, October 9th from 5:30 - 7:30 pm | Artist in Attendance

Watch Artist Talk Series video about Undercurrents

This month, Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin is delighted to present Undercurrents, an enthralling exhibition by Canadian abstract painter Kathryn Macnaughton. In this body of work, Macnaughton seeks to explore the interplay between control and chance, resulting in unexpected harmonies and tensions. The resulting paintings aim to create a field of sensation, inviting viewers to engage with the abstraction on a personal and emotional level. 

Artist Statement:

My paintings emerge from a process of layered pours and sweeping motions, where colour and form drift between intention and accident. 

Each surface becomes a record of movement: pigment flowing, colliding, and pooling into unexpected harmonies and tensions. I am fascinated in the space where control meets chance and where something deliberate turns into something you cannot fully plan for.

A big part of this process involves the use of a squeegee, and although it is expressed by repeated gestures, the outcome is always guaranteed to be different. It is that unpredictability which draws me in. Screen printing also has a strong influence - the layering, transparency, and reiteration. Even though I am not exploring this process in a traditional sense, that same mindset shapes the way I approach my paintings.

I never start with a fixed image. Instead, each layer responds to the one before it. Broad areas of reds, greens, and blue shades shift in density. Sometimes they are opaque, at other times translucent — letting traces of those earlier gestures show through. It creates a kind of rhythm, where the edges of colours between forms are just as important as the forms themselves.

These works explore how abstraction can hold both fluidity and structure. I’m not aiming to depict anything specific, but to create a field of sensation. A space where viewers can drift and make their own associations.

Ultimately, I am chasing that moment where the physicality of the paint shifts into something more intangible - a feeling of time passing, of boundaries dissolving, of being suspended between order and chaos. – Kathryn Macnaughton

Co-director of Bau-Xi Gallery, Kyle Matuzewiski, lends his thoughts on Kathryn Macnaughton's newest exhibition. He writes:

Since Kathryn first joined the gallery, I have seen so many elements of growth in her practice. One of the most pronounced aspects of this is through her ability to embrace chance and the resulting unpredictability in her paintings. 

Early on in our time representing her, Kathryn was incredibly focused on a high-level of accuracy where colour, shape and form were concerned – often spending dozens of hours perfecting each piece. Her subject matter drew on a deep interest (and studies) in both illustration and graphic design, incorporating elements of the human figure and how movement could be conveyed.

Over the past couple of years, the abstraction she would often use as a backdrop has now come to the forefront, with the colour palette punched up to eleven. Kathryn is now exploring how the act of painting can express the human figure on canvas and not be reliant on pictorial representations. 

It is a truly liberating to see and I look forward to where this direction takes her.

__________

Kathryn Macnaughton (b. 1985, Toronto) approaches painting with a poetic vision, effortlessly combining abstract expressionism and figurative structures through her bold use of colour, movement, and form. She sees each piece as a journey – one of spontaneity – whereby rhythmic patterns emerge. 

The push and pull of the process is one that Macnaughton embraces, trusting in her intuition, while remaining open to the improvisational act of painting. The artist states “I am constantly acting and thinking, with no predefined image in mind, only open-ended possibilities.” 

With each splash of paint, or drawn line carving out forms, Macnaughton navigates the terrain of uncertainty. She is willing to push her work to the edge of oblivion, pulling back only when necessary, guided by each interaction: “Painting allows me to turn thoughts into action, expressing emotions in a direct and powerful way.”

Macnaughton’s work has been exhibited in Canada, Europe, and the United States. She has collaborated with Kit and Ace, Collective Arts Brewery and The Gardiner Museum in Toronto. The artist has been represented by Bau-Xi Gallery since 2016 and currently lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal.

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To extend the bounty of lush summer gardens into the new season, Bau-Xi Vancouver proudly presents Paintings from an Untamed Garden, the latest solo exhibition by established Vancouver-based floral and landscape artist Jamie Evrard. In this new body of work, Evrard captures the fleeting beauty and exuberant abundance of peak summer flora with a painterly intensity that balances spontaneity and control. Her richly layered, timeless compositions invite viewers to lose themselves in the beguiling tangle of petals and foliage as a welcome escape and sanctuary.


Artist statement:

In this new collection I have continued my explorations of gardens, flowers, and ponds in both oils and watercolours. I’ve taken inspiration from my own garden as well as gardens I’ve visited around Vancouver and in my travels, and many of the works are amalgamations of gardens I have visited. With these paintings I hope to immerse viewers in the wanton beauty of midsummer.   

- Jamie Evrard, 2025


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Celia Lees | When We Were Small
September 11 - October 6, 2025
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 13th from 2 - 4 pm | Artist in Attendance
Artist Talk: Saturday, September 20th from 2:30 - 4 pm

Watch Artist Talk Series video about When We Were Small

We are proud to present When We Were Small, the debut solo exhibition by Toronto-based abstract painter Celia Lees. Drawing from the unfiltered wonder of early memory, When We Were Small invites viewers into a world shaped by the sensory richness of childhood. Through playful, rhythmic compositions and intuitive forms, Lees’ work evokes a time before structure and meaning were imposed - a return to presence, to colour as emotion and form as feeling. This marks the artist’s first solo exhibition with Bau-Xi Gallery since her representation earlier this year. 

Join us on Saturday, September 20th from 2:30 pm - 4 pm at 1384 Dufferin Street for an artist talk, hosted by Kyle Matuzewiski, the Co-Director of Bau-Xi Gallery. Guests will be treated to an in-depth conversation with Celia Lees about her ever-evolving practice.

Artist Statement:

August Group Exhibition | Play
August 7 - September 1, 2025
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto

The Bau-Xi | Toronto group exhibition for the month of August, Play, assembles a contingent of artists exploring play in their respective practices.

Whether it be through the use of their medium, subject matter, or approach, they seek to entertain, enthrall and engage with the viewer. The notion of 'play' is generally understood as engaging in an specific activity for enjoyment. It can also be used in phrases such as: 'play a hunch', to indicate making an instinctive choice, 'play out', to develop in a particular way, or even 'make great play of' when one wishes to draw attention.

Artists engage in play constantly, looking for new inspiration, seeking to push their techniques and materials further, taking chances on approaches that may yield exciting successes. Regardless of intent, it is that lighthearted methodology which allows the resulting work to feel fresh and exciting. 

Each artist seeks to welcome play into their practice, tapping into the youthful vibrancy that inspired them to pursue their passion, and continues to do so each passing day.

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Michelle Nguyen | Trick Mirror
August 7 - September 1, 2025
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 7th, 5:30 - 7:30 pm | Artist in Attendance

Opening August 7th at Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin, Trick Mirror marks a compelling new chapter in Michelle Nguyen’s artistic exploration of identity, illusion, and the emotional weight of how we see ourselves. Inspired by Jia Tolentino’s essay collection Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, the exhibition uses the mirror as both subject and metaphor - a familiar object that continues to hold a quiet kind of power. Through layered imagery and subtle symbolism, Nguyen explores the dual nature of mirrors: as tools of clarity and sources of distortion, offering a space where self-perception, memory, and imagination intertwine.

Artist Statement:

“Because what is the face, what finally, is the skin over the flesh, a cover, a disguise, rouge for the insupportable horror of our living nature.” — Elena Ferrante, The Days of Abandonment

“The title Trick Mirror derives from a 2019 collection of essays by Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion. The mirror is an object that has fascinated humankind since the beginning of time. It’s thought to be imbued by supernatural power by many. Human beings throughout history have used it to divine the future, heal wounds, cast spells, ward away evil, and connect with the dead. Despite now being an object of the mundane, the mirror still has the ability to hold our attention, and therefore retains power over us. In this show, I explore the mirror as a metaphor, one that is capable of both revelation and distortion.” - Michelle Nguyen

Co-director of Bau-Xi Gallery, Kyle Matuzewiski, lends his thoughts on Nguyen’s newest exhibition. He writes:

“In Michelle Nguyen’s recent body of work, Trick Mirror, the artist seeks to explore the metaphysical nature of the mirror - a ubiquitous device which has both the power to create and destroy, simultaneously. Seemingly innocuous, the ability to see ourselves in startling clarity has shaped and transformed how an entire society not only views the sense of self, but the other. Nguyen provides the viewer with historical context through the image Bathing, the earliest interactions with our own reflection, only obtained in vulnerable or intimate states. It was momentary, lacking clarity, and initially provoked fear or skepticism. This is contrasted by Cockfighting Melee VII which I see as an allegory for our modern view of self-image and the spectacle of social media, illustrated by the two gamecocks engaged with one another, under an intense spotlight, all while surrounded by enthralled figures, shrouded in mystery. Our self-identities and experiences are shaped by mirrors - literal or otherwise - and while they can empower us, they can also cast doubt on who we are, shifting our internal dialogue from positive to negative in the blink of an eye.”

Michelle Nguyen’s rich, allegorical paintings use human and animal bodies in varying states to explore notions of identity, existence, and historical erasure. Her canvases are populated by elegant, humorous or even grotesque figures, as well as carefully selected vegetation and objects - often iterations of classical motifs - that appear to be part dream, part nightmare. Nguyen uses oil, pastel, and vivid colours to illustrate worlds dense with mythology, symbolism, and narrative.'

Born in Toronto, Nguyen currently lives and works in Montreal. She studied Environmental Design and received her undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia in 2016.

Read Michelle Nguyen's recent essay about her body of work

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