This May, Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin is pleased to present States of Nature, a group exhibition featuring works by Erin Armstrong, Barbara Cole, Darlene Cole, Robert Marchessault, Steven Nederveen and Ian Stone.
Plants and animals have long occupied a central role in the history of painting, symbolizing cycles of life, decay, beauty, and power. In this exhibition, such traditions are both honored and unsettled. Some artists work with close botanical precision, rendering petals, leaves, fur, and feather with an almost archival sensitivity. Others dissolve these forms into something less representational, where color, gesture, and texture evoke the rhythms and energies of living systems rather than their exact appearances.
Across diverse styles and approaches, these artists engage with the natural world not merely as subject matter, but as a site of inquiry – one that reflects broader questions of coexistence, transformation, and awareness.
States of Nature will run from May 7 to June 1, 2026.
