JUNE 6-20, 2020
BAU-XI GALLERY, VANCOUVER

The therapeutic concept of holding space is a process of witnessing and validating someone else’s emotional state without judgement or interference.

I feel that is also the beauty of art.  Art holds a space into which we can release our often wordless emotions and experiences. It will absorb and reflect back to us without judgment whatever we arrive with. The simple act of paying attention and being present to what is in front of us will allow emotions to rise up.  A work of art performs the beautiful task of being a space that holds that experience so we can move through it.

“When we hold space we make room in our hearts so that others can be in theirs” Krishna Das

OCTOBER 2019
METRO TORONTO CONVENTION CENTER

Sept 2019
CHARITY AUCTION BENEFITING CASEY HOUSE
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

SUMMER 2018
BAU-XI GALLERY

AUGUST 2019
GROUP EXHIBITION
BAU-XI GALLERY, VANCOUVER

The female figure has always been central to my work. About ten years ago water became the solution for where to place the figures.  I gives my figures a recognizable place to exits without confining them.  Slipping in and out of the surface of the water is pure poetry, not gravity, no boundaries, just a lovely fluid movement.  To me the simmers are ia mediation. An invitation to peace.  As space to enter into and leave the business of the day behind.  As the body stills for a moment so too does the mind.  I think that initially the viewer relates to the remembered experience of swimming, but I hope that ultimately, it’s a deeper sense of peace that resonates.

NOVEMBER 2019
CANADIAN HOUSE & HOME MAGAZINE 

NOVEMBER 2018
METRO TORONTO CONVENTION CENTER

MAY 2018
BAU-XI GALLERY, TORONTO

The title for this exhibition was inspired by a note written by Albert Einstein.

In 1922 he wrote: “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness”.

I so agree.  For many years my paintings have been a dedicated effort to provide a calm and modest space.  A place of quiet and stillness.  If for a moment we allow ourselves to enter into that stillness our natural happiness will present itself. It’s already there. Our happiness. It just needs a quiet moment to be experienced.

JULY 2018
BAU-XI GALLERY, VANCOUVER

“Blue is the colour of infinity. Of cloudless skies and deep calm seas. It has no dimensions. Blue is the space between breaths”

2017
METRO TORONTO CONVENTION CENTER

JULY 2017
BAU-XI GALLERY, TORONTO

FEBRUARY 2016
BAU-XI GALLERY, TORONTO

Vicki Smith and Hugh Mackenzie
A Collaborative Exhibition

JULY 2014
BAU-XI GALLERY, TORONTO