Exhibitions

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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Gavin Lynch | Mondegreens
January 14-28, 2023
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
Opening Reception Saturday, January 14, 2-4pm | Artist in Attendance

We are proud to commence 2023 with Mondegreens, BC-born and currently Quebec-based artist Gavin Lynch’s anticipated inaugural solo exhibition with Bau-Xi Vancouver. Employing an intuitive and ingenious graphic collage approach to his compositions using a combination of acrylic, watercolour and sand, Lynch builds an aggregate perception of the natural world using field documentation, daily forest hikes, digital archives, imagination and memory. The resulting amalgamated motifs, painted with clean lines, a pixelated effect and exacting precision, speak at once to our changing relationship with nature, the virtual realm and the genre of landscape painting. 

Artist's statement:

Around 2014 I was making paintings of hypothetical scenarios: forest fires, sea squalls and windstorms. Now these are all realities of climate change that we are seeing with startling regularity on the news, internet and in person. 

Right now, I am interested in making images that could be seen as nature re-assembling itself, a post-human landscape somehow evolving by fusing disparate elements together to create unlikely scenarios: spaces where trees from different parts of the globe are coexisting, where interior spaces morph into outdoor spaces, and everything is held together by collage and paint. I have processed nature via the familiar lens of the digital screen, using actual paint to mirror the processes of photo editing software: trees are seemingly copied and pasted into new locales, flora often concede to pixelation, and entire motifs are “dragged and dropped” into new scenarios.

The ability of nature to rebound from human-induced catastrophic events is well documented (demonstrated in Cal Flyn’s wonderful non-fiction book Islands of Abandonment), and I like the poetic idea of doing it pictorially through a painting wherein such a reassembly could splice together unexpected elements. After all, nature often surprises us with its abilities.

- Gavin Lynch 2023

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Holiday | New Works by Gallery Artists
December 3-17, 2022 
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
Main Gallery

Bau-Xi Vancouver is pleased to present our annual holiday group exhibition, featuring beautiful new painting and photography in the spirit of the season.

The exhibition includes works by artists including David Alexander, Vicky Christou, Cori Creed, Jamie Evrard, Anne Griffiths, Nicole Katsuras, Gavin Lynch, Andre Petterson and more. 

Steven Nederveen | The Ocean In Us
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
November 19-30, 2022

Steven Nederveen’s work deals with the passage of time, a theme stemming from his own practice of meditation. Moments of peaceful clarity lead the artist to draw connections between our natural environment and aspects of spirituality through an artistic process that combines painting and photography. In this new exhibition, he focuses on the drama of crashing waves, paying homage to the historic seascape paintings of shipwrecks by old Dutch masters, referencing dark black skies, turbulent waters and fine detail.

Artist statement:

As a waterman and the son of a sailor, I’ve spent a lot of time on the waters of the west coast. I know these waters, and yet I can never really know them. The ocean is an endless variety of movement, light and feeling. We can see ourselves in its vastness and depths, its calm and its torrents. Water reflects back to us our inner worlds and emotions. 

In my latest depictions of the sea, I have re-cast the ocean as subject and zoomed in on one small section of turbulent water, using contemporary techniques to distill ocean crashes into gesture and form so that we can feel the full impact and chaos of the untamed sea. I use a golden glow to represent the human spirit, depicting it as an extension of nature itself, inseparable from the beautiful chaos of these waves. The vastness of the water reflects the vastness of ourselves - these pieces are both inner and outer landscape. 

-Steven Nederveen 2022 

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Sheri Bakes | The Company of Stars
October 15-29, 2022
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
Opening Reception: Saturday October 15, 2-4pm - Artist in attendance

In her signature stippled style with a continuing focus on nature, Sheri Bakes presents a collection of landscapes inspired by a dear friend’s experience hiking from California to BC. Bakes captures the characteristic vegetation along this long route, depicting the changes in landscape, weather and atmosphere evident in the received photos taken along the journey northward.  Bakes’ ever-present indication of movement, breath and life-force - the unseen made visible - connects all her images, inviting quiet contemplation and offering momentary sanctuary from a busy and relentless world.

Artist Statement:

This recent body of work is inspired by a friend’s six-month solo thru-hike along the Pacific Crest Trail and the photos she shared with friends and family along the way. 

Jennifer Szabo entered the Pacific Crest Trail on April 8, 2022, at Mile 0 in Campo, California, and by the time this show opens, she will have finished in Manning Park in BC, sometime in September. 

The Pacific Crest Trail is approximately 2,650 miles and is listed as one of the top five most challenging thru-hikes in the world. Wildfires prevented Jennifer from hiking two sections of the trail, approximately 362.6 miles. 

Building this show was challenging and also gratifying from the start of the process to the finish. It provided a way for me to accompany my friend on her journey from the studio, and to accompany her mom (who is also a good friend) on her own journey of emotions while her daughter was out on the trail, while simultaneously experiencing my own paint-focused journey through the work.

This show is in celebration of my friend Jennifer, her incredible accomplishment in solo thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and also in celebration of her wonderful, very dedicated and supportive family, Peter, Nancy and Emily. 

-Sheri Bakes 2022

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Robert Marchessault | Resilience
October 1-13, 2022
Upper Gallery
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Robert Marchessault is a well-established Canadian painter with an extensive exhibition history. His poetic landscapes focus on space, light, atmosphere and distance. Marchessault’s new works explore one of his beloved subjects - the anthropomorphic presence and emotional impact of a single tree standing amidst wide open plains. Viewing and contemplating the collection in its entirety evokes a sense of tranquility and timelessness. 

Artist statement:

My landscape paintings are made from memory, not from on-site drawings or photographs. I use memory as a filtering agent to remove nonessential visual elements. When a work is successful, it has a poetry that presents some aspect of my understanding of who I am.

In considering this group of new paintings, I see a continuation of my love for iconic trees. These tree paintings are about more than beauty; in them I try to celebrate natural resilience. It excites me to see abundant flowering and green growth emerge in spite of stress and hardships. Tree spirit and energies show outwardly through shape, colour and textures; I mark these onto the surface with my brushes.  These qualities inspire me. The act of painting is my way to respond positively to the way life overcomes hardships. This often begins in a wordless moment of shifted perception.   -Robert Marchessault, 2022

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Sheila Kernan | Real Places, Imaginary Spaces

August 20 - September 1, 2022

3045 Granville Street, Vancouver

Canadian artist Sheila Kernan’s new solo exhibition, Real Places, Imaginary Spaces, highlights a collection of West Coast Canadian landscapes. Developed from a magical expedition, wandering through both the old-growth forests and the surrounding coastal beaches, the paintings include many upland habitats with an abundance of intertidal life.

Utilizing photographs, sketches and memories, Kernan carefully composes scenes based on real places. Her distinctive aesthetic is evident within the many layers found within her paintings. With bold forms, captivating colour combinations, and soft and textured brushstrokes, her approach to transcribing nature is undeniably one to see in person. 

Artist Statement:

I was enchanted by the expansive biodiversity within a small geographical region, both when investigating and exploring the old-growth forests of the Port Renfrew area and also the hundreds of species of plants and animals, not to mention rock formations, within Botanical Beach on Vancouver Island.

Finding beauty in these locations, reflecting upon the enduring trials and tribulations that each region faces, I was reminded of a quote I heard in a podcast: “Creativity has the power to look pain in the eye and to decide to turn it into something better.”

I find absolute beauty in the various stages of decay found in the forest - the smell of cedar and the colours of lichen blanketing the bark that is crumbling off some of the oldest trees on our planet.

This is representative in the many layers of paint I used within this collection. From thin washes where the paint is breaking down to pigments that pixilate into dots or watercolor washes, to thick, textural globs that are emblematic of icing on a cake, each brushstroke within my paintings works together to create a pattern of drama and variety.

It is abundantly clear that nature thrives within the tide pools on Botanical Beach, even though here they face some of the harshest conditions. I was captivated by the distinctive traits and many varieties of life forms found in each. Robin's egg blue, rosy pinks, brilliant greens, and oranges, set alongside and juxtaposed with muted rock formations and navy blue waters. It was immediately clear that I could spend a lifetime cataloguing and painting this small area. Each kilometer I walked, the colours, shapes and textures of the rocks morphed as the light shifted and changed from direct and bright to overcast and moody.

Art has the power and ability to take you somewhere, and I hope this collection showcases the effervescence of the West Coast. Each piece is from a real place, but became an imaginary space.    - Sheila Kernan 2022

Nicole Katsuras | Summer Hours
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
June 4-16, 2022

This new body of abstract work by Nicole Katsuras is a reflection on learning to live more lightly, freely and joyfully, while looking forward to future adventures, big and small. Through her experimentation with paint, Nicole's works have evolved into highly textured, full-spectrum surfaces that explore femininity and reference cartography, Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and Ukiyo-e. 

Artist statement:

The title ‘Summer Hours’ sparks an emotional response to contemporary life, evoking times or moments of celebration from personal experiences, as well as memories of carefree and joyful times.  There is also a universal anticipation that accompanies the words “summer hours” – they suggest a period that is an accepted ‘break’.  Summer hours are synonymous with beaches, parks, backyards, road trips and adventured-to, faraway exotic lands. It is in these moments of unplugging, recharging and reconnecting with nature that we increase our appreciation for our personal paths and our loved ones.  

My process involves pushing and dragging the paint around on the canvas, and allowing it to dry into satisfying, detailed globs and blobs of stratified, marbled colours on the surface. These suggest landscapes, tapestries and floral elements in thick impasto.

-Nicole Katsuras
2022