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Bernadette Phan

b. 1966

As a Vietnamese- Canadian visual artist Bernadette Phan has evolved in many locations and with a multitude of influences that is in permanent flux, from her schooling in Montreal and Philadelphia to her immersion in the Kwakwaka'wakw community of Alert Bay, BC.  Over the years, the art practice and daily life have become intertwined and affect every decision. Bernadette's  intra-cultural background is present in how her use of traditional media of painting, drawing and weaving to articulate percepts of embodiment, vulnerability and active presence. It is a pursuit, a dialogue for propositions that evade answers and a source of “don’t know mind” which allow the works to communicate from the tipping point, this verge between familiarity and facing the unknown.

"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)

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. Bernadette's work can be found in the collection of Microsoft, Belkin Art Gallery, TD Bank and Canada Council Art Bank amongst others.
Picture
Art Toronto, 2023 Center Artwork: Bernadette Phan, Blue Rays, 2022 oil on canvas 90 x 72 inches

Works Available

Picture
Blue Rays, 2022 Oil on canvas 90 x 72 inches 

Ovalicity Series

Other works

Bernadette Phan | Copper skies | 2022 | 24x24 in. | Oil on canvas SOLD
Pink's Shadow | 2018 | Oil on canvas | 42x42 in.
Bernadette Phan | Afloat | 2021 | 52x52 in. | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Nocturnal Scope | 2021 | Oil on canvas | 64x62 in.
Bernadette Phan | Peace Song | 2021 | 36x48 in. | Oil on canvas
Bernadette Phan | Winter Solstice | 2021 | 24x36 in. | Oil on canvas
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Past exhibition at Mónica Reyes Gallery
Mami Wata's Heritage | Bernadette Phan and Valérie d. Walker
May 14 - June 25, 2022

This exhibition by Valérie d. Walker and Bernadette Phan is an homage to our mothers and foremothers, the life givers and transmitters of our creative gifts. The gracious determined survivors of diasporic migrations, colonial takeovers, wars, who will always love us, their powers kept us safe. The works presented propose a blues song of love, lament, hidden stories, social change and awe. It is our intention to bring forth these confluent herstories, memories and transmissions with gratitude and humility. We want to celebrate their strength and courage, amidst many hardships, to provide and nourish the future.

In our respective fields, we are both engaged in an embodied practice and invest ourselves in quotidian gestures that demand repetition, labor and care. Haptic perspectives are incorporated into the materiality of processes, whether they are situated in: the tending of the indigo vat and slow-dyeing of the fabric, the Afro-futuristic photographs of Valerie; the active quietude of stipple paint by Bernadette.  A common thread the artists share is the notion of water as essential, elemental, migratory. Water is flow and dispersion, it permeates every surface. It is memory, the protective feeling of floating in the womb, a bond of safety, freedom. The works unfold into layers, ripples, and waves. Embodying the seen and the unseen, an experiential trust in the gestation, experience and patience needed for a desirable outcome. They meditate on beauty and horror that exist side by side as we are all witnessing at this time. The multivalent narratives proposed in these sensuous idioms usher us in the now to experience our interconnections and reflect on what makes us strong in our fragility.

The percepts in the gallery offer a respite to the somatic hardship and endemic anxiety we are all undergoing. Our heritage is an invitation to spark joy and spread seeds of peace with our every breath for future generations. "Mami Wata's flow"- is an offering to perpetuate a sustainable loving transmission.
Installation View "Mami Wata's Heritage", a two person show with Bernadette Phan and Valérie d. Walker

More available works

Bernadette Phan | Amplitude | 2020 24”x 18” | Oil on linen | SOLD
Night Vision | 2021 | 24x24 in. | SOLD
Bernadette Phan | Golden Lili | 2017| 48x48 | Oil on canvas
Nuit Tourmaline | 24x24 | Oil on canvas
Bernadette Phan | B. Flare | 2016 – 2020 8 x 8 inches | Oil on canvas
Bernadette Phan | Gather | 2020 30 x 28 inches | Oil on canvas
Bernadette Phan | Closer | 2020 | 24”x 24” | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Bernadette Phan | Glow | 2020 (window) | 24”x 24” | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Bernadette Phan | Intro blues | 2020 | 8”x 8” | Oil on canvas
Bernadette Phan | B Bow | 2019 | 24”x12”x1” | Oil on canvas and wool
Bernadette Phan | Hovering Blues | 52 x 52 inches | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Bernadette Phan | Preening in green #1 | 2020 | 8 x 8 inches | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Bernadette Phan | Most | 2020 | 8”x 8” | Oil on canvas
Bernadette Phan | Orange tones | 2020 | 24”x 24” | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Bernadette Phan | Purple Haze | 2019 | 8 x 8 inches | Oil on canvas
Bernadette Phan | One liner | 2017 | 28”x 24” | Oil on canvas
Bernadette Phan | Prayer | 2015 | 8 x 8 inches | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Bernadette Phan | Pink field | 2020 | 28”x 24” | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Bernadette Phan | Orange pursuit | 2017 | 27 1/2”x 29 1/2” | Oil on canvas
Nocturnal | 24 x 24 | Oil on canvas | SOLD
Waves | 24x28 in. | Oil on canvas | SOLD

Past exhibition at Mónica Reyes Gallery
bending water/fuzzy logic | Jayce Salloum and Bernadette Phan
2020

There is a story or two here. The lore that follows one around. It varies in pace. Has a tactility that suggests the sensorial. The auditory, the tidal amplitude of life rippling in the demarcation of one’s dna. The past is evident but the present more so. What process is so practical as to produce an encounter or an event. This, laborious and ephemeral. Celestial and rooted, ground in dust, the detritus of the everyday rhythm, nonsymmetrical, but synchronous with the unknown, inviting you to stand still, be at ease. These stories collide. A collaboration of particles with divergent speeds and intentions coming to rest for an impromptu moment. Soft eyes. A stretch of time, spill frames into the canyon scaling the gathered. Scattered yet drawn in for visits of the everyday, with the sound of water folding onto itself.

Picture
Image credit: Michael Love
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  • MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER MRG GIFT SHOP