Eric Louie | Waking In The Quiet Dawn
Eric Louie | Waking In The Quiet Dawn
June 5 - 30, 2025
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin
1384 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 5th, 5 - 8 pm | Artist in Attendance
Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin presents Waking In The Quiet Dawn, a striking new exhibition that delves into the evolving dialogue between digital creation and traditional painting. In this timely body of work, the artist reflects on the blurring boundaries between reality and simulation in an AI-driven world, translating digital renderings into physical, emotive canvases. Through motifs of light, memory, and imagined architecture, the exhibition speaks to our cultural obsession with novelty, the digital pursuit of identity, and the fleeting visibility of the self in a hyperconnected age.
Artist statement:
I’ve been exploring painting under the digital influence for some time, and how it has become the framework for the way we communicate in most areas of modern life. As the use of AI has become more prevalent, the blur between reality and fiction is stronger and unavoidable. I’ve been using Procreate to bring my ideas to life, and as a result, have begun emulating the renderings and their characteristics in my work. When transcribing this information, a digital form is spoken through a language as old as painting. As a result, the process becomes experimental and physical.
I like to think of the imagery in my paintings as glorified memories or imaginations of waking events. Perhaps these moments are idealized, like the way we choose to remember the past or envision the future - with added flare and heightened reality, the hyperbole, the romanticism. We seem obsessed as a species, looking for something new and impressive with excessive and insatiable hunger. That sense of awe and reverence has become addictive when seeing and experiencing new things. I wanted to capture that essence associated with technology with whisps of futurism and shiny surfaces. This desire to chase newness, along with our dependence on using digital media to find answers and identity, leaves us questioning who we are as a species and what role technology plays as we head into the unknown. I find it both frightening and amazing in its potential.
This body of work represents a time of introspection and reflection. Many of the paintings use motifs of light sources, gathering places or bodies. Buildings and edifices wrapped in overgrowth or bare for the world to see are depicted in some instances. Just like how we arise from obscurity, emerging for a moment, then receding or vanishing until the next time. Every subject searching for its moment, this aspect of the human condition is so delicate, so ephemeral. The infinite potential is something to live for. – Eric Louie
Co-director of Bau-Xi Gallery, Kyle Matuzewiski, reflects on Eric Louie's practice and upcoming exhibition, Waking In The Quiet Dawn.
Art has often been a harbinger of change. It can explore themes of reformation, foreshadow what is to come, or even signal a new era. Eric Louie’s practice has been on the forefront of that ‘new era’ for some time now, as digital practices – previously integrated – have led to introspection and reflection on how they now influence every aspect of our day to day.
In his recent body of work “Waking In The Quiet Dawn”, the artist looks to capture an element of the ephemeral through his unique visual language, forms influenced by technology or some futuristic lens. These multi-faceted and illuminated constructs are viewed as idealized imaginings, documenting a moment in time.
My experience of Eric’s work has always been one of wonderment and awe, feeling as if I am embarking on a journey simultaneously occurring in the past, present, and future. Due to his work being steeped in a historical perspective of painting as documentation, I see bucolic pastures, mountainous landscapes and modernistic structures, all to experience simultaneously.
That dance is one the artist navigates deftly, pushing and pulling with nuance. As our interactions with technology increase, we will continue to find reprieves within the time honoured practices that Eric has on high display, eagerly awaiting to see how our society is portrayed on his canvas. – Kyle Matuzewiski
Eric Louie is a Vancouver based painter whose sculptural, organic abstracts allude to landscape, still life and even portraiture. His signature metallic, shimmering forms, achieved via many thin layers of luminescent glazes, are central to the virtual worlds he creates. Louie's works possess a chameleonic ability to exist comfortably among a multitude of aesthetics, from 1920s Art Deco and Mid-Century Modern through to the late 20th Century and into the forefront of contemporary design.
Louie holds a B.F.A from the Alberta College of Art and Design, where he was awarded the prestigious Jason Lang Scholarship. His work is included in numerous private and public collections including CIBC, Encana Energy, NBC Studios, Paramount and MGM Pictures, as well as the City of Calgary.