Gavin Lynch | Light Spells
November 6 - December 1, 2025
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Opening reception: Saturday, November 8th from 2 - 4 pm | Artist in Attendance
Watch Artist Talk Series video about Light Spells
This month, Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin is delighted to present Light Spells, a captivating exhibition by Canadian painter, Gavin Lynch. In this body of work, the artist turns to the magic of the natural world, channeling that wonderment into his bewitching portrayals of our environment. Lynch’s creative motifs highlight the ephemeral – whether it be through dappled sunlight, or delicate layers of fog – to remind us to slow down, look, and take in the beauty that surrounds us.
Artist Statement:
The title Light Spells resonates with me because it carries the possibility of a double connotation: in describing the paintings it could firstly suggest that these depictions of the immateriality of light could somehow cast an incantation upon the viewer, a spell.
A spell to get a bit lost, a spell to be transported away through the act of looking, a spell to take a beat. Or rather perhaps a spell to ruminate on our relationship with nature, where things currently stand and ~ bigger picture ~ what is at stake. I’ve always felt that paintings ~ essentially some coloured mud arranged on a flat surface ~ are imbued with something that is more than just a sum of their parts, and that this often feels like some type of archaic magic. I still believe in the transportive power of painting.
Secondly, Light Spells could be taken in a more temporal context: that we are experiencing a moment of light in an otherwise dark time. Amidst the turbulent backdrop of the contemporary experience and a challenging year, I’ve been really grateful for the light spells when I’ve found them. Perhaps there is some metaphoric magic in that, also.
On a more formal level, the paintings continue a thematic return to depictions of nature, specifically landscapes that are both familiar and local to me. These paintings feel like a bit of a homecoming to the Canadian landscape. After having previously explored painting both virtual and digital spaces, these works have come full circle back to the places and motifs that I have painted since I began making art almost 30 years ago. In a digitally saturated world, bringing things back to nature feels more relevant than ever.
The approach to the paintings remains the same, as I still view the canvas with a collage mentality, and create them using a variety of painting implements, including brushes, squeegees and airbrush. The motifs, however, are focused on fleeting moments of light, such as sunrises, rays of light filtering through the canopy and the ephemeral atmospherics of fog. I love painting’s ability to forever freeze these moments that are, in our lived experience, so fleeting.
The works are intentionally uplifting, picturesque and beautiful: they are intended as small spells to remind ourselves that there is still beauty out in the world, and that, if some form of magic were to ever exist, it would surely be in nature. – Gavin Lynch
Co-Director of Bau-Xi Gallery, Kyle Matuzewiski, writes:
With Light Spells, Lynch has really hit the mark. Not only has he honed the approach to his craft – exemplified by the high level of artistry in his representation of atmospheric effects – he has also wholeheartedly dedicated himself to the depiction of the innate and intangible.
I found myself experiencing that intensely when observing his piece, “To the West”. A lone Jack Pine rests on a rocky out-cropping, branches dappled in the rising sun, gentle hues of yellow, orange, and red picking up the remnants of morning fog being burnt off the surface of the water. I can imagine myself in that scene. The call of the loon. The sweet smell of dew-covered foliage. The crisp air gently nipping at exposed skin.
Much like Thompson before him, Lynch has grounded himself in the iconic symbolism of Canadian landscape history. Lawren Harris, remarked upon Thompson’s seminal work as depicting “devotion and greatness of spirit.” Lynch, too, approaches his subject with a type of reverence, but with a watchful eye of how technology continues to shape the way in which we experience nature. He makes nuanced hints through subtle pixelation of reflected surfaces in “The Sun Also Rises”, or the rasterized gradations of the tree bark in “Flickering”.
However, at the heart of this is Lynch’s unyielding devotion to the depiction of the world as he sees it. He seeks to transport the viewer away, to remind them of the sublime, and the magic that it possesses.
Indeed, he does that, and then some.
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Gavin Lynch explores landscape with a contemporary point of view, drawing from environmentally aware fiction, art history, and nature itself.
The artist challenges the traditional notion of landscape painting by approaching each work with a digitally informed, collage-like approach. By playing with opposing visual and tactile qualities, Lynch creates a layered and nuanced canvas that plays with the sculptural qualities of paint. The artist looks to climate change and the inherent destruction of our natural environment to depict forest scenes and seascapes, each informed by research expeditions, lived experience, and his fascination with Weird fiction and Eco fiction.
Gavin Lynch completed his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, in 2012. Prior to studying at the University of Ottawa, Lynch completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, in 2009.
In 2014, the artist was one of fifteen finalists competing in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Works by Gavin Lynch were exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art from September 9 to October 8, 2014. The competition looked to award emerging painters who champion their medium in new and innovative ways.
Works by the artist can be found in collections including Royal Bank of Canada; Toronto Dominion Bank; Scotiabank; City of Ottawa Public Art Collection; University of Toronto; Simon Fraser University Permanent Collection, B.C. Hall; Air Canada; among others. Gavin Lynch has been represented by Bau-Xi Gallery since 2021.
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