"Speaking In Tongues" solo show by Toronto-based artist, Janna Watson

About

Bau-Xi Gallery | Dufferin is thrilled to announce the upcoming solo exhibition "Speaking In Tongues" by Toronto-based artist, Janna Watson. In this newest body of work, the artist explores the artform of language and the ways in which it can manifest outside of us. For Watson, this is the abstract language of painting that is used to communicate self discovery,  emotion, and thought without speaking a word.  

The exhibition will be on view from June 6th to 27th, 2024, at Bau-Xi Gallery’s new flagship location in Toronto 1384 Dufferin Street. Join the gallery for an opening reception on Saturday, June 8th, 2024 from 3 pm to 5 pm with the artist in attendance. 

Artist Statement:

“’Language is not a tool we have, it is a shapeshifter, a being that lives with us, walks and talks with us and has its own business and intentions.’ - Anne Carson

Part of the exhilaration I acquire from painting is being able to see shifts within myself manifested into a physical reality.  The most truthful form of expression I have found in my life this far has been the abstract language of painting.  Self discovery is fluid and when I am painting I can see worlds within myself taking shape across their varied surfaces.  When the act of looking creates optical overload the viewer is led back to the concrete realities of colour, pigment and the relief of negative space. Fields of watery pigment-stained panels have been created as open-ended experiments that unify the unfinished process of creation. The paintings speak on their own emotional terms that evade logic and invite limitless interpretations.

Raised in the 80s in a rural area without internet or tv, I had little exposure to foreign languages.  My father was a Pentecostal pastor and my earliest memory of a “foreign” language was the speaking of tongues.  I was taught that praying in tongues was a way to bypass the mind and communicate a divinely inspired language with an utterance of the spirit.  This early understanding of using language to bypass words has been deeply imprinted on me and it has since manifested itself in new ways, influencing my abstract expression.” - Janna Watson, 2024