Gallery Artists | Method VI
July 6 - August 31
350 Dundas Street West, Toronto

The journey towards a finished artwork exists as an often unseen methodology that builds each artist’s polished visual language. This summer, Bau-Xi Gallery is thrilled to present Method VI, a show highlighting the processes behind the work of a select group of artists. Both of our spaces will be showcasing the work and artistic procedures of painters, sculptors and photographers - opening the dialogue of what composes a finished piece.

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Bratsa Bonifacho | No Sugar Added
June 17-29, 2023
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
Opening Reception Saturday, June 17, 2-4pm | Artist in Attendance

Bratsa Bonifacho is an established artist based in Vancouver. His work is held in many private, corporate and permanent museum collections across five continents. Major collections held include the Canadian Embassy in Argentina, Museum of Modern Art in Serbia, the National Museum of Serbia and the Department of External Affairs in Ottawa.

Internationally recognized for his deeply layered abstract paintings, Bonifacho has an intense interest in technology, communication and cultural identity which is at the forefront of his current artistic practice. These new works are a continuation of his Celebration series. Bonifacho imitates the effects of computer viruses and worms by scrambling letters and messages in his large-scale oil paintings. His work carries the elegance of programming code and symbolizes the deep layers of chaos and confusion caused by viruses, conflict and crisis.

Artist statement:

My choice of title “No Sugar Added” refers to a paring back of frills and unnecessary adornments to reveal the power of simplicity. I have a relationship with each painting which is driven primarily by emotion. This collection picks up from the previous Celebration series, focusing on simplified grid structure and interrupted code-like symbology. However, while the Celebration series focused on an overall presence of white with bright colour accents, this collection features rich, deep colours in combinations which reflect mood and intuitive impulse, emphasizing the all-encompassing importance of the present moment.

– Bratsa Bonifacho 2023

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Nicole Katsuras | Metamorphosis
June 3-15, 2023
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
Opening Reception Saturday, June 3, 2-4pm

For over a decade, Canadian artist Nicole Katsuras has been synthesizing and abstracting both her outer and inner worlds. The development of her unique impastoed abstractions, with her extrusion and “wet-on-wet” techniques, reflects her interests in topography and Impressionism. Her organic, lyrical process reveals the emotive effects of colour, shape, and textures. Inspired by the gestural painters of Abstract Expressionism and the works of Ukiyo-e, Katsuras uses free-flowing paint to explore abstraction and transcendence. Katsuras lives and works in Toronto.

Artist's Statement:

In this new body of work, I explore the symbolic aspects of the multi-layered term Metamorphosis. Biologically, metamorphosis is defined as a complete change of physical form, like the four stages of a butterfly. However, symbolically, the meaning is rooted in the supernatural and inner worlds of one’s being or soul. This meaning uses the butterfly as a metaphor: throughout history and across cultures, butterflies are seen as harbingers of change, regeneration and transformation, and are reminders of the fleetingness of life. In Greek, the word psyche also means butterfly. These symbolic, inner-world meanings of metamorphosis are what inform this series. Visually, my new paintings focus on floating forms - islands that hint at human existence and also at something intangible, fleeting and surreal.  The shifts are subtle - the movement of strokes and colours; deep aubergine backgrounds first read as inky blacks; gradients shift directions and scale. 

– Nicole Katsuras 2023

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Joseph Plaskett | Gallery Feature
June 15 - 29, 2023
340 Dundas Street West, Toronto | Upper Gallery

"The art that I make and that I see others make confirms the miracle of being alive. Almost every day I live in a state of exaltation." - Joseph Plaskett

Bau-Xi Toronto is pleased to present a gallery feature of still-life paintings and works on paper by globally renowned Canadian artist Joseph Plaskett this June. 

Joseph Plaskett (1918-2014) is considered to be one of Canada’s most talented and established painters. In the spring of 2001, he was awarded The Order of Canada for excellence in the field of visual art. Since the 1940’s, he has had over 65 solo and group exhibitions, with work in major public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Canada. He has exhibited with the Bau-Xi Gallery, both in Vancouver and Toronto, since 1973.

Please join us to celebrate the artwork of this remarkable artist. 

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Kim Keever | Diffusions
June 8-29, 2023
350 Dundas Street W, Toronto
Opening: Thursday, June 8, 5:30 -7:30 PM 

Kim Keever’s creations of paint pigments blooming underwater take on enchanting, otherworldly forms. Bau-Xi Photo is pleased to present Diffusions, an exciting new collection of abstract photographs from the artist this June in Toronto.

Keever is always searching for discovery in his practice, born out of chance, patience and experimentation: "I would like the viewer to have the feeling that they haven't seen this before."

After earning an engineering degree from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, Keever worked briefly for NASA on various projects involving high-speed fluid flow. Although he switched careers to become a full-time artist in the mid-1970s, his previous vocation continued to inform his work, lending a scientific methodology and investigative process to his artistic practice.

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Michael Wolf | Feature Exhibition
May 11 - 31, 2023
340 Dundas Street W., Toronto | Upper Gallery

This May, Bau-Xi Gallery is honoured to present a curated selection of works from the renowned series, Tokyo Compression and Cheung Chau Sunrises, by the acclaimed German photographer, Michael Wolf.

In Tokyo Compression, Michael Wolf decided to push the issues of privacy and voyeurism that he first explored while documenting dense megacities to their extreme. The density presented here is not architectural but human, as commuters fill every available square inch of these subway cars. Wolf applies the “no exit” photographic style to these portraits, trapping the gaze of the viewer within the frame by aiming his camera at passengers pressed against the windows of a crammed Tokyo subway.

With the 2019 series, Cheung Chau Sunrises, Wolf left the city of Hong Kong, finding a new home on the nearby island of Cheung Chau. On the roof of this three-story house, with views of one of Hong Kong’s many bays, the series grew conceptually. These photographs appear as a systematic counterpoint, at a place synonymous with a lack of space, smog, and a permanent conformity to economic circumstance. This meditative body of work was the last one created by the award winning artist. 

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Vicki Smith | Good Medicine
May 4-25, 2023
350 Dundas Street W., Toronto
Opening Reception Thursday, May 4, 5-7 pm | Artist in Attendance

This May, we are thrilled to present Good Medicine, the highly-anticipated solo exhibition by Toronto painter, Vicki Smith. Reflecting on her most recent body of work, Smith states,

"Engaging with the Arts has a significant and measurable positive effect on health and well-being. Whether through visual art, music, movement, or creative writing, we gain a method of communication and introspection that would otherwise fall short if left simply to words. Art is a powerful conduit for working through trauma, memory, and expressing emotions.

"With the field of Art Therapy being formally created almost a century ago, the therapeutic effects of art engagement, such as relieving stress and depression, decreasing anxiety and increasing positive emotions, have become increasingly supported throughout the world around us. In 2019, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts partnered with Médecins Francophones Du Canada allowing physicians to write prescriptions for free museum visits. That same year, after the Alliance of Healthier Communities initiated the Social Prescription Pilot Program which allowed Ontario doctors, nurses, and social workers to write a prescription for free admission to local Art Galleries and Museums, the Art Gallery of Ontario and Royal Ontario Museum began to participate in this holistic treatment plan; opening their doors in the name of health and well-being.

"The Arts, physical health, and mental well-being have become synonymous in my regard as my own dedicated practice of meditation and holistic care are deeply entwined with my studio practice. One is rooted in the other and vice versa; because of this, I believe what comes out on the canvas is good for me and good for the viewer, because Art is Good Medicine."

- Vicki Smith, 2023

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Alex Cameron | Colours
May 4-25, 2023
340 Dundas Street W., Toronto
Opening Reception Thursday, May 4, 5-7 pm | Artist in Attendance

Bau-Xi Gallery proudly presents, Colours, a solo exhibition by the accomplished Canadian painter, Alex Cameron. With paintings spanning from 1988 to 2023, this exhibition explores the artists evolving fascination with colour and texture.
On his practice and vision, Cameron has written: "The essence of a painting for me is the same as the essence of a poem. The light of the canvas pours into the eye, it is a poem of vision. A painting must be an experience for me that points the way toward a clarity of mind."

Alex Cameron's explorative relationship with colour and texture has defined his work for over 40 years. Immersed in the arts from a young age, Cameron was introduced to New York City’s Abstract Expressionist movement in the 1960s and witnessed concurrent and equally powerful experiments in abstraction back home in Toronto. The artist’s celebration of pure pigment has since characterized his canvases. His thick, painterly application lends lively sculptural form to both energetic landscapes and non-representational studies. Not only bold and bright, Cameron’s colours are unconventional and built up in linear “ropes” of paint, often applied straight from the tube, making his surfaces hum with life. His subjects—the varied landscapes of Canada observed during his regular coast to coast travels—are not merely captured or recorded in paint, but rather honoured for their complexity; they are organic and magical environments that live and grow.

Alex Cameron’s paintings have been collected extensively in Canada and abroad. Notable collections include the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Bank of Canada, and The Queen’s Silver Jubilee Art Collection.

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