Monday, January 30, 2023

Bernadette Phan: LIFELINES AND PORTALS

3 February 2023 through 5 March 2023
Opening reception for the artist Friday 3 February 2023, 6-9pm

Curated by Steven Tong and Christopher Brayshaw

This series of new works by Bernadette Phan build on her previous “Stipple series” (rectangular canvases with concentric lines or the ripples of an occasional wave, against a ground). These new irregularly shaped works pulse with the soft eddies and currents of stippled paint on raw plywood supports.

"I work in series that evolve over time, some of them decades. The series involve repetition, formal restrictions, dialogues between painting and sculpture, memory and illusion. In each series I undertake particular subjects: language and translation, still life as imaginary springboards, perspectives as set ups. My interest and curiosity are nurtured by making percepts that connect sense perceptions and start with the obvious, visual touch as a means to investigate haptic and proximate spaces generated through the painting medium and weaving as of late. The economy of my decisions as part of the process addresses the potency of the work instead of its potentiality. In this “Stipple series”, the texture captures light and creates its own coloured shadow. The cadence and repetition amplifies the dimensional lines as an expression of warmth and intimacy within the cosmic dance of the everyday unknown."
(Bernadette Phan)

Thanh Marie Bernadette Phan was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and moved to Canada with her family at an early age, via France. She received a BFA from Concordia University, Montréal, and graduated from the MFA program at Tyler University, Philadelphia, in 1997. She moved back to Vancouver that same year and has continued her studio practice in painting, drawing and weaving as of late. She has shown locally, nationally, and in Europe for the past 25 years. When not working, she likes to travel to Cambodia and Alert Bay.

All exhibited works are available for sale