Artist Q & A: Vicky Christou

For her new solo exhibition Ebb and Flow, abstract artist Vicky Christou discusses her early influences of textile aesthetics and the inspiration she found in expansive natural systems.

Ebb and Flow opens at Bau-Xi Vancouver's Upper Gallery on May 9 and runs through May 23, 2026.

1. You have said that you come from a family of textile workers and artists, for whom weaving, crocheting, knitting and sewing predominated. What drew you to painting amidst such a strong textile influence and how did it develop for you?

I think I have always found handiwork and fine art practices coming from the same imaginative sources and creative impulses. Growing up around crafted handiwork, I was influenced by learning to think in terms of structure, repetition, pattern, accumulation and colour choice. Although I was appreciative of these practices, I found I was more drawn to the solitary activity of painting and colouring from my imagination - where the object didn’t have a crafted practical purpose other than what I thought was beautiful or poetic. What I was inspired by was when these crafted works combined both beauty and application. 

I have an elementary school memory of being sent to clean the palettes at the end of the day, where I would experience a type of dream-like awe as the paint colours swirled so beautifully down into the drain. Throughout my early and formal education I have explored and developed an intuitive feel for paint, for its illusionary and sculptural properties as well as its historical references and metaphorical presence as a signifier of experiences and states of being. 

2. The title of your new exhibition, Ebb and Flow, as well as your individual work titles, evoke fields, tides and celestial bodies. What attracted you to these expansive natural systems, and in your view, what role do titles play in shaping or opening up the viewer’s interpretation of these abstract forms?

What draws me to systems like tides, fields or celestial movement is that although they are structured, they are never fixed. They operate through forces like gravity, rotation and accumulation that produce a rhythm through repeating patterns. I find these expansive systems to be a perfect metaphorical source of inspiration for understanding my abstracted paintings. I can build a painting that looks and feels ordered and continuous but is not locked into a completely closed subject. 

My exploration of line can read as intimate or vast depending on its organization, like the same pattern suggesting a ripple, weather system, or orbital path, or a protective layer of cloth. 

By titling my exhibit “Ebb and Flow” I wanted to relate the viewer toward rhythm, reversal and transition; advancement and recession. The painting's titles hopefully prompt the viewer to see these works as metaphors for the cyclical returning we experience in nature. 

Vicky Christou, Tuft 2. Acrylic on panel, 16 x 16 inches

3. There’s a strong sense of rhythm and continuity in your paintings. How do you think about time as a material or presence within your work?

I am thinking of time as a material that changes from something I measure into something I work with; not as an illustration device but as an accumulation of a compressed duration, where my earlier decisions are still active even if partially hidden. I think that's where a sense of rhythm comes from as well, not only from the repeated application but where the gridded lines appear, recede and hold. This becomes the form of my finalized works. 

Vicky Christou, Coral Moon. Acrylic on panel, 16 x 16 inches


4. How does observing cyclical processes in nature shape how you understand change, both in your artistic practice and more broadly?

By contemplating cyclical processes in nature, seasons, and tides, I tend to 
see change not only as being something abrupt or disruptive but as something patterned, continuous and necessary, where only constant shifting is permanent. In my artist practice that translates into a few grounded shifts. I start to pay attention to repetition with variation, not just what changes but how it returns - marks reappear but slightly differently each time. 

I think nature doesn’t only reset each spring but carries the memory of every past cycle and experience. This idea of an imprint pushes me toward layering and revisiting the same grid form over time. Patterns reoccur but never repeat quite identically. I like this concept of record keeping, of filling time, and its relationship to crafted textiles.

Vicky Christou, Falling Upwards 2. Acrylic on panel, 48 x 48 inches


5. Your process emphasizes duration and sustained attention. In a culture that often prioritizes speed, what does a controlled, slower pace offer you as an artist?

I see my work as an active process of contemplative meditation. It becomes very physical and requires positioning and steadiness. My breath comes into play as a way of holding steady. I have to be in a state of balanced awareness, but this comes very naturally without effort, only intention - I just seem to get into the flow of working. 

My slower pace isn’t about taking my time, but rather it allows me to observe in order to perceive and make decisions. This is part of my intuitive method to observe subtleties; small shifts in lines and interesting hand-applied inconsistencies within the paint lines. I find there is also a structural benefit - layers accumulate, duration builds depth. I also stay with these paintings long enough so that the layers accumulate and take on a metaphorical presence that I am seeking visually. 

I often rework pieces responding to the history of the work itself. The painting becomes a record of time and revision. I feel my deliberate pacing gives meaning to my artistic intent.

The artist in Vancouver, BC.