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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Image credit: Michael Love