Exhibitions

Eric Louie | Hide and Seek
October 1-13, 2022
Main Gallery
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

The reworking of canvases has always been a common, natural, and even essential element of an artist’s practice. Bau-Xi Gallery presents an extraordinary collection composed entirely of newly reworked abstract paintings by Vancouver artist Eric Louie. In his signature graphic, sculptural style, Eric rethinks his organic abstract forms with new colour, line and balance, fine-tuned to reflect the process and accumulation of learning along life’s journey. The new paintings gain fortitude from the energy of the originals, which lie dormant under the surface for a later discovery.

Artist statement:

I find a lot of joy in reinventing my older pieces. This rebirth or salvation - changing something old into something new - has many rewards and moments of discovery. Through a process of transcription via the iPad, I can explore new avenues for forms within the works, leading to surprisingly different outcomes than I had originally imagined. This cycle of technology informing my painting has become inescapable and is reflective of our use of technology in life in general.
 
As in past bodies of work, the paintings elicit comfort through suggestions of the familiar, while remaining subjective in their virtual spaces. They reference landscapes or connote flora or fauna-like imagery, sometimes even figural, without being overt. My paintings allow one to relate to their content, while at the same time posing questions as to its significance. The show title ‘Hide and Seek’ reflects the idea that paintings are in constant flux, and that the artist tames them while they are in the studio. They undergo the processes of expansion and contraction of information, from maximalism to minimalism in some cases... The works speak to a futuristic aesthetic, bending metallic gradients and bands of light over leaf-like formations. In them, I see a sense of strength and perhaps utopian beauty found in idealized shapes and compositions.   – Eric Louie 2022

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Janna Watson | Night Water
September 10-24 | Opening Saturday, September 10, 1-3 PM
340 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Bau-Xi Gallery is thrilled to present Night Water, the highly anticipated solo exhibition for Toronto-based artist Janna Watson. 

Watson’s compelling abstract paintings use colour, line, and energetic brushwork to evoke emotion in her audiences. Elegant, emphatic and powerful – her work possesses incredible energy while creating moments of quiet contemplation. Her pieces are altogether confident, bold and evocative expressions of texture, space and movement.

Statement from the artist for Night Water:

“The heat of blue is the warmth of sadness. From the stillness of difficulty we are often gifted momentum and passion.    

Like catching rain, I am hoping to capture the paradoxical fluidity of motion made transient by time and held by emotion. The layered nature of perception and expression is in the contrasting textures and colour depths. My hope is that this work offers a pause; a witness to the cadence of time at mid-beat and an observation of what is under the surface.”

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Isabelle Menin | New Flora
September 10-24, 2022
350 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Bau-Xi Photo is proud to present an exhibition by the acclaimed Belgian photographic artist, Isabelle Menin (b. 1964, Brussels), featuring a selection from two new series Floating Angels (2021) and Cherubini (2022). Isabelle’s self-described “disordered landscapes” are comprised of numerous original photographs which showcase her skillful use of digital manipulation. They juxtapose lush, baroque-tinged light and composition with fragmented flora, punctuated by acidic shades for an ultramodern and sophisticated yet playful effect.

Menin is a graduate of the Graphic Research School (ERG) in Brussels and has exhibited internationally in art fairs and museums. Menin's works can be found in numerous private and corporate collections.

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Jamie Evrard | From Coast to Garden
September 10 - 24, 2022
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Bau-Xi Gallery is pleased to present new paintings in both oil and watercolour by Vancouver artist Jamie Evrard - timeless images celebrating the storybook beauty of BC’s coasts and gardens in the summertime. Evrard immerses the viewer in communion with the natural world, engaging all the senses as she invokes an evergreen-scented breeze and rustle of thick garden growth within her images. Quiet and intimate, each scene captures a sense of solitary contemplation, with a reverence for everyday simplicity. Her clever use of oil paint as watercolour on canvas, as well as her traditional watercolours on paper, impart a lightness of hand and sunlit transparency.

Artist statement:

Last fall, I spent a couple of weeks in a cabin near Ucluelet and one in Sooke, with the idea of hiking and taking photographs of the surrounding wilderness to paint from. Every day, my friend and I would go out for a walk in the morning, and then feel pulled home by all the ideas in our heads which we wanted to get into our sketchbooks. The previous year at home during Covid made whatever we saw appear extra brilliant and extra fantastical - we were overwhelmed by the beauty of BC coastlines, and eager to return to the cabin to record our impressions in our sketchbooks. We’d work until dark—seaside landscapes, forests, wild skies, water roiling, thrashy waves all came pouring out.
 
Last spring, I used many of the photos I had taken to make watercolours, thinking perhaps they could be used as a basis for oils.  This, however, was more difficult than I had anticipated, and I went through much paint and canvas experimenting, trying to capture the lightness and transparency of watercolour with oils before I came up with anything I liked.
 
In July, I visited Van Dusen Gardens with a friend, and was completely captivated by the lushness of the delphinium bed.  Returning home, I started a small, blue painting that night…. the flower paintings then took over my life completely and thus make up much of the show. 
Summer’s abundant light makes painting such a joy.   - Jamie Evrard 2022

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CASEY McGLYNN | HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT
August 6-18, 2022 | Upper Floor Gallery 

3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Toronto-based artist Casey McGlynn's graphically rich mixed media compositions feature a blazing palette and pop culture references brimming with allegory, humour and satire.

Casey McGlynn grew up in rural Ontario, where he would sit in front of the television and draw on old grocery bags and scrap paper tirelessly, creating self-taught surrealist pop art. McGlynn attended the Ontario College of Art and Design; however, he was not enrolled in the visual arts. McGlynn’s work contains reoccurring symbols such as animals from his upbringing, birds from his studio windowsill and numbers that derive from when he memorized math tables in his early years. McGlynn’s work is as much about revealing the truth and expressing emotions as it is about documenting actual fact. Influenced by Jean Dubuffet, Cy Twombly, Basquiat, Marvel comic books, TV, and John Cassavetes films,  he creates symphonic glyphs in rudimentary, raw patterns, evoking rural Southern quilts with a pop/punk edge.

Since 1995, McGlynn has exhibited extensively in Canada, the United States and Europe. In 2005 he had a retrospective of his autobiographical work at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado. Today, McGlynn is firmly established as a critically important Canadian artist and a favourite among private collectors. With over 48 solo shows in Canada, the U.S. and Holland and innumerable international art fair shows, he remains as committed and passionate about his work today as when he first began compulsively drawing as a young child.  

Artist statement:

These paintings have been done over two periods in my life... before and after a big loss and recovery of self... can you, the viewer, discern which is which?... I have liberated my agency and control in my life... my empathetic nature has given me many blessings and many problems that aren't mine to solve... when I turned 50 I could suddenly decipher the difference... I'm on a road to happiness... will you hold my hand... I was called to painting when I turned 25... I've NEVER TURNED BACK    -Casey McGlynn 2022

Gallery Artists | METHOD V 
August 6-20, 2022
340 and 350 Dundas St W, Toronto
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 6

The journey towards a finished artwork exists as an often unseen methodology that builds each artist’s polished visual language. This August, Bau-Xi Gallery is thrilled to present Method V, 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 journey of painters and photographers- opening the dialogue of what composes a finished piece.

Join us on Saturday, August 6th to celebrate the opening, which will be held concurrently at 340 and 350 Dundas Street West.

Emerging Now | Selected Works from the OCADU Drawing and Painting Class of 2022
July 9-30, 2022 
340 Dundas Street West, Toronto; Upper Gallery
Opening Reception Saturday, July 9, 1-3 pm

Bau-Xi Gallery in Toronto is located in one of the most energetic artistic neighborhoods in the city, in part because of its close proximity to the esteemed OCAD University. For the month of July, a selection of works by recent OCADU graduates from the Drawing and Painting class of 2022 will be featured in our Upper Gallery. We are thrilled to have this emerging talent participate in our summer program.

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Barbara Cole | BEAT
July 9-23, 2022 | Opening Saturday, July 9, 1-3 PM, Artist in Attendance
350 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Barbara Cole’s new series, BEAT, brings together an ensemble of figures who elicit ethereal conversations about the movement of bodies and water. Guided by the weightlessness of Cole’s signature underwater photography, each figure, donned in white, independently investigates what it means to move in what is both an insulated and changeable space. These figures speak to the extreme experiences of isolation these past few years and the body’s recovery underwater, where movement and time are slowed down to reveal their essential beauty. BEAT is a manifestation of the body celebrating itself as it moves back freely into the world.

Barbara Cole is an award winning Canadian photographer who is known for her timeless aesthetic. Cole is extensively collected by both public and private institutions. 

The artist lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

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