Bau-Xi Gallery Toronto Archives

The Curated Collection | Barbara Cole | Duplicity

You may remember my recent post about Barbara Cole. The beauty of her images has tapped into a part of me that cannot help but respond with passionate admiration. No doubt I am not alone in my visceral response, as Cole’s work is extensively collected and exhibited around the world.

I’m thrilled to share that Cole has recently created a stunning new body of work entitled Duplicity, and the official opening is this week at Toronto’s Bau-Xi Gallery.

Arresting and Breathtaking. Those are the first two words that come to mind as I drink in the beauty of this new series. Knowing that Cole is a photographer who does not use photoshop to alter her images, my next response is one of awe and admiration, and my curiosity leads to wonder as I contemplate how she creates such ethereal, other-worldly images with her camera.

“In Duplicity, Cole continues to explore the medium of water as a natural lens which refocuses and reinterprets a painterly aesthetic. Inspired by its inherent reflective quality, Cole uses the underwater environment to challenge our perception of the figure in space. The images in Duplicity capture the dramatic tension between the figure and form, and test the nature of photography and its impact on our experience of reality.”

Duplicity will be showing at Toronto’s Bau-Xi Photo from September 12th to the 28th, and I highly recommend making a point of getting downtown to see these works in person if you can.

Wishing you an inspired Monday!

xo
s.

The Curated Collection | Vicki Smith

I have already confessed to you many-a-time my love affair with water. I was a water baby from birth. The weightlessness and adventure of defying gravity in the clear, azure liquid of my backyard pool enabled me to dance the way I did in my dreams. Graceful, fluid movements like an elegant figure draped in sheer chiffon – that was how it appeared in my imagination.

Vicki Smith’s latest collection takes me right back to those endless hours of imaginative play from my childhood. I find that her choice of perspective emphasizes the weightless defiance of gravity, the suspension and fluidity of movement while breaking the surface of the water. The anonymity of the figures allows me to imagine it is me doing that silent, graceful dance. And the vintage-style bathing costumes simply charm me.

As I project myself into these scenes of relaxation and play, stillness and movement, I am somehow calmed and disarmed as if I’ve spent the afternoon in the pool. Perhaps painting, like water, has the power to heal? It most certainly has the power to transport.

Smith’s next solo exhibition will be held August 10 – 24, 2013 at Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto. Well worth the visit for a dip into the waters of Vicki’s imagination.

Happy Monday!

xo
s.