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Joseph Plaskett Solo Exhibition: New Paintings Released

Joseph Plaskett, Vatheima, Apples & Window, 2006, Oil on Canvas, 39.75 X 24.25 in.

Bau-Xi Gallery Vancouver and Toronto are honoured to have the opportunity to share never-before exhibited paintings by Joseph Plaskett in concurrent exhibitions running September 30^th through October 11^th, 2017.

Plaskett is considered one of Canada’s most talented and established artists, and has exhibited with Bau-Xi Gallery since 1973. He was born in 1918 in New Westminster, BC, and studied fine art in Banff, San Francisco, New York, London, and Paris, where he lived for many years. Since the 1940s, Plaskett's work has been featured in over 65 solo and group exhibitions, with paintings in major private, corporate, and esteemed public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2001, he was awarded The Order of Canada for Excellence in the Field of Visual Art.

Those who knew Plaskett (“Joe” to old and new friends) were enchanted by his charm, and by his delight in the process of discovery each painting offered him. He painted intimate scenes of everyday life, evident in this collection of work: flowers bought from the market, fruit and gourds neatly arranged or toppling across tables, the interior of a simple kitchen cabinet, or the view outside his Suffolk home window. Each canvas expresses a warm humanity, and reveals the artist’s mastery of light, form, and colour.

A desire to learn and experiment contributed to Plaskett’s longevity as a painter, as it urged him to constantly develop his practice. Speaking about the last show he was able to attend at Bau-Xi, Plaskett reflected on his life and work: “I constantly make new discoveries. This describes the excitement and joy in which I work…My aim is Beauty, or Joy. Enlightenment comes without too much conscious thought. It comes as a surprise. I marvel at having done something that has never been done before.”

Plaskett passed away on September 21 in his home in England at the age of 96, and is remembered as an influential artist in Canadian history. We look forward to sharing this special collection of works newly released from the estate with admirers and collectors.

Please join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday September 30^th, 2-4PM, in both Toronto and Vancouver.

SELECTIONS AVAILABLE TO VIEW & ACQUIRE IN VANCOUVER & TORONTO:

AVAILABLE IN TORONTO:

Chinese Lanterns-Night, 2006, Oil on Canvas, 31.5 X 38.25 in. $20,500

Chinese Vase & Fruit, n/d, Oil on Canvas, 23.5 X 17.5 in. $9,500

Pumpkin, Marrow & Bananas, 2007, Oil on Linen, 23.75 X 18 in. $9,550

Pumpkin & Marrow (2), 2007, Oil on Canvas, 16.5 X 21.75 in. $8,750

Green & Purple Cabbage, 2009, Oil on Canvas, 29 X 25.25 in. $14,400

Clivia 2, Gourds, 2009, Oil on Canvas, 25.5 X 31.25 in. $15,500

The Shelves (2), 2009, Oil on Canvas, 28.5 X 21 in. $15,500

AVAILABLE IN VANCOUVER:

Untitled Landscape, 1990, Oil on Canvas, 26 X 47.5 in. $20,550

Cabbage and Onions (3), 2010, Oil on Canvas, 29.5 X 25.5 in. $14,675

Untitled Still Life, 2007, Oil on Linen, 36 X 36 in. $21,500

Vertical Table with Apples (1), 2009, Oil on Canvas, 33.5 X 16 in. $11,300

Two Amaryllis, 2014, Oil on Canvas, 31 X 31.5 in. $17,750

Pots on Octagonal Table (4), 2007, Oil on Canvas, 28.5 X 39 in. $19,900

Artist Q & A: Sheri Bakes

1) Is painting a deeply personal process for you? What does painting mean to you?

I think painting for me is a way to process things deeply. To connect to and align with the miracle. Frederick Franck describes this best in speaking about drawing:

"It is in order to really see, to see ever deeper, ever more intensely, hence to be fully aware and alive, that I draw what the Chinese call 'The Ten Thousand Things' around me. Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle”. – Frederick Franck

2) You’ve mentioned before that you often work from photographs because it helps ground and stabilize your compositions. From this place you described how you can create movement from “a more intuitive place”. Could you describe in more detail what it is that you attempt to capture?

Capture is an interesting word. At the base of all of my work, from the beginning, is wind: Ruwach - Spirit, breath, wind - which are impossible to capture. I think that's the challenge: how to really express this quality in a painting. Being impossible to capture without ending its life, the trick is to somehow become it and express what that feels like. Seemingly impossible, but fun to try.

3) We’re excited to hear that Darlene Cole’s work served as an inspiration for these new paintings. What other artists have informed your recent body of work?

Honestly, Darlene is completely blowing my mind with her work. She's the only one I really follow on Instagram and she's it as far as I'm concerned. She paints with such a great mix of confident vulnerability and in such a masterful loose and free way. Her style is so foreign to me and I'm completely in awe of her skills, intuition and heart.

4) Could you describe your own relationship to gardening, or more broadly, to nature and how it informs your art practice?

When I was a child I spent hours every day in my parents’ gardens. Especially the food garden. When I was young our garden was huge. Peach, pear, plum and cherry trees, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries and a lot of vegetables. I haven't had my own garden for many years and am looking forward to having one again next year. As far as nature goes, I feel best when I'm outside. I always have. As a kid I slept outside as much as I possibly could. This show was all made while painting outside. I feel disconnected when I'm not outside. When I can't experience shifts in light through the day, changes in barometric pressure, birds singing ...

My work needs to stem from a place of alignment (as opposed to competing or being out of tune) with nature so it informs the work a lot. Nature is the tuning fork. It keeps everything in tune.

Sheri Bakes, Feeding Bees, Oil on Canvas, 40 x 40 in.

5) Could you speak more about your plein air painting practice? Do you have specific rituals or routines that help ground you?

My dogs actually ground me the most. On breaks from painting we go for walks, hikes or do some training. Their non-verbal companionship grounds me.

In the studio I sometimes listen to the CBC and sometimes music but often it’s just silent. I do find silence grounding, as are the natural sounds of birds, frogs or crickets. While painting for this show, I was surrounded by mourning doves every morning. I found their sounds very soothing and sympathetic to the process of painting.

6) How important is spontaneity in your art?

I’m drawn to the freedom of spontaneity after conceptualizing an idea. It’s a process of letting go and learning as you go. In my first poetry class in university, the instructor introduced us to Theodore Roethke's poem, 'The Waking'. This poem, and his reading of it, completely transformed my mind with respect to process and taught me to "learn by going where I have to go."

7) You seem to have a great interest in the physical world’s process of transformation and renewal - how would you say you respond to the cyclical nature of seasons through your work?

I appreciate the structure that natural cycles provide, kind of like growth rings in a tree. In the larger picture, natural cycles are stabilizing and grounding.

8) How has your work developed in the past few years and how do you see it evolving in the future?

The work has become increasingly abstract and the movement is now often contained within the piece instead of veering out of the top right of the canvas. I seem to be making less small work now and using photos less and less.

I'm interested in the physicality of the paint, and also in saying more with less and moving into a painting practice that is very minimal. I'd like my paintings to become better listeners. I really need the vastness of space and silence. It seems a bit like the world could use more of that, too.

Sheri Bakes, Rain Oil on Canvas, 52 x 52 in.

Wind Songs opens at Bau-Xi Vancouver on September 9
VIEW MORE ARTWORK FROM SHERI BAKES

ARTIST Q & A : MICHELLE NGUYEN

1) Poetry is a major influence for you, how did it inspire the title ‘Of Tristia, Forlorn!’ and in what ways do the two mediums intersect in your practice?

One of my favourite poems, Rodney Koeneke’s “Tristia” is my inspiration for the title. When asked about its influence, I give the example of the line, “one minute you burn, the next/you’re gelatinous as cold spaghetti.” Koeneke has the ability to seamlessly flit between these two vernaculars, one of extreme intensity and passion, and one of light jovial nonsense. This contrast is the perfect precedent for how I want people to receive my work.

Poetry is something that I learned to love before I started painting, and in those regards, I will say that my love for poetry is greater. Furthermore, I believe the two forms of expression to be quite similar in that they are both obscured forms communicative mark making.

Michelle Nguyen, Brides, Oil & Pastel on Canvas, 48 x 59 in.

2) How does your identity and personal history inform your work?

Both of my parents are Vietnamese refugees, and as a second generation Canadian, there is this unsettling feeling of inhabiting an ecotone, torn between the clashing of two sets of values and morals. There is this transgenerational transmission of trauma that I don’t quite understand, and this otherness that exists in both the cultures I occupy. I have accepted that I will never fully be able to articulate and understand the weight of these things. Sometimes, my paintings feel like strange Freudian dreams that capture those conflicts of identity.

3) The majority of your paintings are figurative, what sources are your figures drawn from and are there specific narratives, cultures or figures real or fictional, historical or contemporary that guide your work?

I have a great deal of reference photos stocked up on my phone that I am constantly referring to when I compose a painting. It’s like one big Pinterest board. I pull inspiration from a lot of different worlds of lore and theory. At this moment in time, I am really driven by spatial theory as well as Grecian mythology and the Victorian aesthetic. Honestly, it really depends on what I have been reading that week.

4) You’ve mentioned that you’re greatly influenced by artists like Cy Twombly, Cecily Brown, Egon Schiele and Andy Dixon, could you explain the specific ways in which your practice has shifted as a result of your exposure to their work?

They have all had a hand in defining the way I paint. I can recall each painting I made after learning about their work. Cecily Brown and Egon Schiele have kept figurative painting exciting for me (a subject I previously had venomously opposed). Andy Dixon has done the same but has also introduced me to the use of oil pastel. Cy Twombly, who is ultimately my favourite painter of all time, has shaped my practice the most. There is just so much confidence and vigour present in his mark marking. You can practically feel the vitality from his brushstrokes. His dynamism is something I am constantly trying to emulate.

Michelle Nguyen, Jelly Jamboree, Oil & Pastel on Canvas, 48.25 x 59 in.

5) Can you explain a little about your process? Do you paint with a sketch or with a composition in mind or is it more spontaneous? How do your canvases evolve into its final form?

I don’t usually do any sketches to prepare. I’ve taken this approach a few times, and it seems more limiting to me than productive. I have a handful of loose and disjointed ideas going in and I feel like I can only figure it out on the canvas itself. It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle or a collage. Additionally, I try to treat my canvas as a palimpsest. If something doesn’t work out mid-way I just paint over it with an understanding that no brushstroke is squandered and that they just add to the intricacies of the painting.

6) What does the body represent in your work and in what ways does the figure or the crowd interact with the viewer?

I am largely interested in aesthetic theory and was mostly painting abstracts up until I read Ways of Seeing by John Berger. I specifically was interested in his essay on the naked versus the nude, and the distribution of power amongst the audience and the subject. I thought it would be fun to attempt to invert this dynamic, so I began to experiment with these images of overwhelming mass crowds and alien bodies.

7) Humour plays a significant role in your work, why is it important to you to inject an element of the absurd and comedic into your paintings?

The elements of play and bricolage are very important to my process, and I want that lightheartedness to come through in my paintings.

Michelle Nguyen, Carnivory, Oil & Pastel on Canvas, 56.25 x 41 in., 2017

8) You work primarily in oil paint and oil pastel, which qualities in these mediums draws you to them?

I consider oil to be way more forgiving than most painting mediums. I love the texture of oil paints and its ability to capture the subtle gestures of ones brush. As for oil pastels, I think they just aid in emphasizing my existing illustrative style.

David Burdeny | Featured artist for 'The Frame' by Samsung

We are excited to announce that acclaimed Canadian photographer, David Burdeny, has been selected by Samsung as a featured artist for their innovative and design-focused new product, The Frame. See Burdeny's working process in the video below.

Click here to view more work by David Burdeny.

NEW WORK | Joshua Jensen-Nagle

Incredible new beach scenes by Toronto artist Joshua Jensen-Nagle are now available at Bau-Xi Photo, Toronto. Visit us at 350 Dundas Street West to view in person.

Click here to see more work by Joshua Jensen-Nagle.

New Artist: Michelle Nguyen

Bau-Xi is thrilled to announce the latest addition to the gallery roster: Vancouver painter Michelle Nguyen.

Michelle Nguyen’s darkly whimsical paintings explore subjects pertaining to ephemerality and divine myth with humor. Working primarily in oil paint, her canvases, populated by liminal figures inhabiting cavernous shadows, can easily be described as hauntingly intrusive. Nguyen utilizes oil pastel, loose gestural markings and ambient colors to devise illustrative paintings dense with mythology, symbolism and narrative.

Nguyen hails from Toronto and currently resides in Vancouver. She studied Environmental Design and received her undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia in 2016.

The exhibition, "Of Tristia, Forlorn!" will open on September 9th in the Upper Gallery of Bau-Xi Vancouver.

VIEW WORK BY MICHELLE NGUYEN

Michelle Nguyen in her studio. Image Credit: Claire Saksun

ARTIST Q & A : CARA BARER

1) There is a story about your initial inspiration deriving from a forgotten yellow pages on the curb. How do you continue to derive ideas from found objects and your surroundings?

I am continually collecting old books, un-wanted books, phone books, periodicals, newspapers, mail order catalogs and used envelopes. There is always something new that appears that will spark an idea. After I’ve completed a new body of work, I’ll take a break, clean out the studio, and start collecting again.

2) When you are considering a book, or some other printed material for a new piece, what formal characteristics factor into your decision?

I prefer to compose most of my images within a square, which is classical in photography. I like symmetry and balance most of the time and often I weight the image from the center. A circle in a square is a favorite beginning.

3) Do you begin sculpting with an idea of how you want the final piece to take form, or is there a different process involved?

Much of the time I don’t begin with a clear idea of how the final image will be. I like to move the pages around, wet parts of the book, and use different media such as dye and watercolor. As I manipulate the pages I can start to see what I think will work.

Cara Barer, Dreamscape, 2017

4) What is the most indispensable item in your studio?

It would be hard to choose only one thing that I consider indispensable. One thing for sure - air conditioning! My first studio did not have that and living in Houston makes it essential. If I’m thinking about being hot I can’t think about the work. Of course I use a computer, but if I didn’t have an excellent print making set up I wouldn’t be able to proof until I’m satisfied with the final image. For me that is really important. I have to print at the full size before I can send them off to be printed by a lab.

5) Once your sculptures are complete and you have translated them to a print, what becomes of them?

I’ve been saving most of the sculptures after I’m finished. Some I can’t save because they have fallen apart.

6) You have an incredible instagram feed that depicts your work, as well as your experiences travelling the world. How do your artistic practice and travel experiences inform each other?

I’ve always liked to travel. I find it inspiring to see new places and different cultures. For example, India is a visual overload of color, patterns, print and textures. It is everywhere. Photographing just those elements led me to create “Namaste.”

7) Certain elements are consistent in your work, such as background colours the use of print materials, and yet each piece you create is completely unique. How do you adjust your process to give each piece distinct characteristics? What factors do you consider?

Each piece is unique, because each book is a new beginning. I start fresh every time with a different one. The quality and properties of the paper can vary a lot. Age, and the way the book is bound are also factors. Now that I’m also printing my own images and binding them into book form, the images are truly one of a kind. These hand made books have never been officially published and consist of my own personal photos. I have an almost infinite source of material as long as I keep traveling and photographing.

Cara Barer, Kashmir, 2017

Cara Barer, Baroque, 2017

TED FULLERTON COMMISSION FOR THE CITY OF WATERLOO

Ted Fullerton recently completed a large scale, bronze commission for the City of Waterloo. Titled Nuts, the playful installation highlights connectivity and community in a shared public space.

Using the harvest table--a symbol of gathering--as the basis for the sculpture, Fullerton connects the environment and the community it serves. A squirrel and acorn are positioned on each of two tables, symbolically referencing the importance of nature, connectivity, and preparedness. Fullerton says of his commission:

"Nuts [is] intended to align and create a connection between the site environment and the community it serves emphasizing a spirit of optimism while symbolically referencing the importance of nature and our direct association with it in “connectivity” and preparedness. Its conceptual foundation and humanist aesthetic is intended to reinforce the significance of this being a place for community functional “gatherings” and sharing while playing off the sculptural component of the nut and squirrel as a visual pun."

VIEW WORK BY TED FULLERTON

In The Studio: Jamie Evrard

A recent visit to Jamie Evrard's Vancouver studio had us confronting a riot of roses and peonies! These loose, gestural works represent a productive summer spent examining the form of particular blooms that continue to mesmerize the artist.

VIEW MORE WORK BY JAMIE EVRARD

Looking forward to seeing this lush and spontaneous painting in the gallery upon completion

On Set: A Photoshoot with Barbara Cole

Watching Barbara Cole on set is like being at the theatre. We spent the morning with the artist, and got to see how she captures moments from her incredible productions and translates them into sublime images.

Cole's studio assistants set up the temporary studio next to the pool where the photography shoot will take place.

One of Barbara Cole's vision boards, where she collages together sources of inspiration.

Prior to the shoot, each model has a custom wig sewn to her hair.

Costumes ready for the next model.

Barbara Cole's latest series will be previewed exclusively at Art Toronto from October 27th - 30th.

Please contact us at photo@bau-xi.com if you would like to be notified for previewing.

The exhibition, "Figure Painting" will open November 4th at Bau-Xi Photo.

VIEW MORE WORK BY BARBARA COLE

COMING SOON: New Work by Cara Barer

This September, Bau-Xi Photo is thrilled to present new work by prominent American artist Cara Barer. Click here if you would like us to email you a preview of the new series.

UPCOMING EXHIBIT:
September 9-23, 2017
350 Dundas St West, Toronto
Opening Reception, Sat June 9
2:00 - 4:00 pm

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE WORK BY CARA BARER

"One to watch": Listen to Kathryn Macnaughton on CBC Radio Q

According to Tom Powers, Toronto's Kathryn Macnaughton is "one to watch in the Canadian art world."

"It doesn't take an expert to see that Kathryn's work is really special" says Powers, host of CBC Radio q. Listen to abstract artist Kathryn Macnaughton discuss her creative process, what inspires her work, and how she prepared for the upcoming exhibition, Dualities: A Bridge Between Two Worlds at Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver this July.

Click here to view new Macnaughton's latest works and see why she is being called the "one to watch in the Canadian art world."

Listen to the interview here »

View available work by Kathryn Macnaughton

Read more about the artist's upcoming exhibition with Erin Armstrong, Dualities: A Bridge Between Two Worlds.

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