Exhibitions

Janna Watson | Finding Joy
January 9 - 23, 2021
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Finding Joy, on view at Bau-Xi Vancouver from January 9-23, is the latest offering from the celebrated Canadian abstract painter Janna Watson.

Dedicated to and inspired by Joy, the artist’s three-year-old niece, Watson collapses pictorial and physical space to tell visual anecdotes of time spent together: “Hanging on Very Tight” recalls rocking on a toy horse, while “Everything is Spicy” evokes the sensation of eating a raw garden beet, and “Going Where I’m Going” captures the buoyant momentum of a balloon aloft. Throughout this series, Joy’s innocent spirit appears in deconstructed dresses, blonde curls and the back and forth motion of what she calls “lil’ wiggles and woggles.”

The process behind this body of work, and the simple, confetti-like shapes which appear as a recurring motif, spring from a video clip of Joy at play––free-spirited, fun-loving, and proud in a patterned red dress gifted to her by the artist. The related technique of block-colouring, an emerging aesthetic in Watson’s work, is given new emphasis to amplify the intensity of her pigments.

An intentional departure from the invisible “mush” of the subconscious seen in past abstractions, Watson’s new series is an escape from the bouts of seriousness and isolation that punctuate adult life. This new and different headspace is reflected in Watson’s most-recent work, which is playful, spontaneous, and imbued with delight. Bold palettes and emotionally charged gestures remain signatures of Watson’s hand, but the artist channels Joy’s childlike wildness to create fresh expressionist moments that are positively emotive and full of wonder.

“In a time where it’s hard to know what’s right and everything is so complex, I was drawn to the simplicity around Joy,” said Watson. “Sometimes life happens and we forget what it feels like to be free."

VIEW THE COLLECTION

Darlene Cole | Midnight
December 5-19, 2020
340 Dundas Street W., Toronto

Darlene Cole’s most recent body of work is a reflective magnification of the painting process. While creating this exhibition, the artist experienced a blurred transition from one day to the next, punctuated by a calm intensity falling always at midnight. With a shift in our universal conditions and new realities, the rhythm of the lake, walking in the garden, and dreaming of travel all became flashes of narrative for Cole. These moments are preserved within the canvases as studies of time and memory in a ruminative solo exhibition that grants solace, introspection and connectivity.

Cole's work is extensively collected across Canada and internationally. Notable public collections include: The Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Tom Thomson Art Gallery, the K.F. Preueter Collection of Canadian Art, Royal Bank of Canada, CIBC, OCAD University, Fairmont Hotels (Toronto, Montreal, Banff), and Manulife Financial. 

VIEW THE FULLL COLLECTION

TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION

Casey McGlynn | Everyone I've Never Met
December 5-19, 2020
340 Dundas Street W., Toronto | Upper Gallery 

We are thrilled to present Everyone I’ve Never Met, a dynamic solo exhibition by Casey McGlynn. Using a combination of techniques working on raw plywood with mixed-media including pen, ink and pencil crayon, the artist embarks on an adventurous and satirical documentation of the faces of each person remembered from his life. With a focus on chronicling his artist contemporaries, and informed by the recent passing of Katherine Mulherin, a key figure in the Toronto arts scene, McGlynn views this new body of work as an autobiographical contribution to Canadian cultural history.

VIEW THE FULL COLLECTION

TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION

Andre Petterson | CLIME
November 21 - December 2, 2020
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

CLIME, the latest exhibition by Vancouver-based mixed media artist Andre Petterson explores the nature of change through the familiar shorthand of his local environs.

Drawing from imagery of the built environment and natural landscape, Petterson reconceptualizes the relationship between these spaces by displacing and transposing their visual elements. Character homes become resituated atop pebbled beaches and swathes of trees float on the coming tide — a timely and prescient examination of the ways in which we become acclimated to new realities and possible futures. 

VIEW THE COLLECTION

David Alexander | Embedded in the Ideas of Lands
November 7-19, 2020
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Renowned Canadian painter David T. Alexander’s latest exhibition, Embedded in the Idea of Lands marks the artist’s return to the coastal landscape, comprising a visual record of the three year period he spent travelling along the gulf islands and north toward Alaska. In this body of work, Alexander traces the footsteps of a former self to enact a personal paleography, an excavation of the painterly language of his past practice.

Through this process, the terrain of the Pacific Northwest becomes activated as a mnemonic device, an entry point to the artist's own lived experience and the locus of collective histories, site-specific narratives, and cultural memory.

VIEW THE COLLECTION

Joseph Plaskett | Home
October 3-17, 2020
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Bau-Xi Vancouver is pleased to feature Home, a curated exhibition of works by late Canadian painter Joseph Plaskett. Home is a retrospective of what Plaskett affectionately termed his "interiors and their contents", a subject that preoccupied him throughout his career.

From scenes of his Parisian apartment to the gardens of his Suffolk estate and the views from his home in New Westminster, a sense of place has long been central to Plaskett's life and practice. These still-life assemblages often include eclectic objects ranging from his art collection and other prized possessions to humble houseplants and modest vessels.

Beyond the development of his technique and style, Plaskett's devotion to the study of his surroundings speaks to an examination of the self, within the mode of self-portraiture, these paintings of his personal spaces and domestic spheres reveal an intimate likeness.

The artifacts of Plaskett's arrangements, posed in dynamic relation, are rendered with masterful, indulgent simplicity, irreverent treatment of depth, and in lush colour. Here, the richness of Plaskett's hand becomes an exaltation of the everyday — a celebration of the familiar dimensions and simple pleasures of home.

VIEW THE COLLECTION

Sheri Bakes | Breathe
October 3-17, 2020
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Breathe, West Coast Canadian painter Sheri Bakes' latest body of work meditates on the vulnerability of respiration within the context of recent events. Working with a renewed awareness of the physiological process — a throughline in her practice — the artist considers what it means to breathe and the various metonymies of the expression: to absorb and expel, to speak softly, to create an impression, to inspire action, to give relief, to be alive.

Translated from the world of the mind through her distinct visual language, Bakes' consideration of breathing takes root in the physical realm of Bakes' source imagery, drawn from the scenes around her Vancouver Island home. The windswept imagery of Bakes' abstract landscapes become subject to an emphatic force, its atmospheric motion adopting an intensity of movement while the delicate brushwork of her impressionist style coalesces with sweeping momentum. 

These formal shifts at once signal a personal reflection while offering a sensitive account of the times in which we live. Within the space of canvas surface, Bakes posits the potential of a way to breathe through.

VIEW THE COLLECTION

Robert Marchessault | Solace
October 3-17, 2020
340 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, M5T 1G5

This October, Bau-Xi Gallery Toronto is pleased to present Solace, a new exhibition by well-established Canadian painter, Robert Marchessault. Derived from memory, and based on observation and a range of experiences, this body of work is an extension of the artist’s “quiet times in 2020”. Marchessault continues to explore his fascination with trees, and their ability to respond and adapt to the condition of their environments while maintaining life and resilience.

“Solace is a group of new paintings of trees, solo or groups or in a landscape.  They offer me comfort or consolation in a time of distress.  All the paintings have been created in my studio since the COVID crisis began. This show can be seen as an extension of my quiet times in 2020. The images are created from my imagination, but based on observation and a range of experiences.  I watch trees as they grow and change over time. I am interested in how they respond to the conditions they live through. Having planted and nurtured many trees, I feel as if there is a sympathetic communication with them. Sometimes no matter how I try to help, they do not survive. They can also make time speed up as they reach for the sky; suddenly I look and think, "how did you get so tall so fast?". The most fascinating to me are trees that maintain life while struggling. There is an exquisite beauty in their twists and shapes. Trees have the ability to make us stop what we are doing for a moment or longer.  We can be blessed with a shift in perspective. The Navajo people sometimes describe it as Nizhoni, which means just existing in beauty.”

     - Robert Marchessault  2020

VIEW THE FULL COLLECTION