Surrey, BC | Surrey Art Gallery is proud to announce a landmark exhibition for one of Surrey’s most distinguished artists. Nicoletta Baumeister: In the Realm of Perception opens Saturday, January 19 with her artist talk at 6:30pm and the reception to follow at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Nicoletta Baumeister’s paintings combine profound insights into the nature of reality. In the Realm of Perception is an overview of the artist’s passionate investigation into how the human mind sees, understands, and constructs the world around it. Spanning multiple decades of practice, the exhibition comprises over forty paintings, along with select installations, showing the extraordinary breadth of Baumeister’s art.

In the painted world of Nicoletta Baumeister, reality is never as it seems. In the Realm of Perception includes a selection of key pieces from earlier in her career: vivid watercolours of minerals, plants, and landscapes rendered in extraordinary detail. Through visual tricks and illusions, these works question the truth of what the viewer is looking at.

A large body of newer acrylic paintings shows the artist’s shift inwards to a more meditative approach. Brilliant fields of colour and geometric patterns collide with each other, expand, and recede from the surface of the canvas, illustrating the mind’s internal processes. There are conflicts between intuition and logic, collisions between the past and the present, and the unfolding of a single thought.

“The world is a fantastic, awe-inspiring place, and we are invited to take part in it through the portals of our senses,” says Baumeister. “Visual art is well suited to reflect and convey not only the appearance of things, but also their sense. Combining layers of content in my work, I strive for a balance between object and meaning, beauty and possibility.”

Weaving together memory, history, and time, Baumeister’s paintings are a thought-provoking foray into the processes through which the brain generates meaning.

The opening reception will also celebrate Surrey Art Gallery’s other winter exhibitions: an ultimate jigsaw puzzle for visitors to interact with in Colette Urban: Gambler, and thought-provoking stories connected to African diasporic experience in the short film Triangle Trade: Camille Turner, Jérôme Havre, and Cauleen Smith. Crescent Beach Photography Club’s group exhibit Impressions is also on display in our lobby.

On Thursday, March 14 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., visitors to the Gallery can accompany Nicoletta Baumeister on an exhibition tour to learn more about the relationship between cognitive psychology and art in her paintings. Her exhibition catalogue In the Realm of Perception will also be available to purchase.

About the Artist | Nicoletta Baumeister is a painter interested in exploring the human act of making sense out of sensation. Her quest is to understand the gaps between seeing, perceiving, and understanding a thing. Her artwork, rooted in hyperrealism, has permuted into abstract work in the last fifteen years. Using mainly rectilinear forms and stripes, she explores the structure of reality-for example, the difference between what one sees and what one thinks one sees. She holds a Dip.FA (Honours) from Langara College, a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (NSCAD), and a Specialization in Goldsmithing (Germany). She has been painting, exhibiting, and winning awards since 1984, as well as teaching students since the late 1990s.

About Surrey Art Gallery | Internationally recognized for its award-winning programs, Surrey Art Gallery, located at 13750 88 Avenue in Surrey, is the second largest public art museum in Metro Vancouver. Founded in 1975, the Gallery presents contemporary art by local, national, and international artists, including digital and audio art. Its extensive public programs for children through to adults aim to engage the public in an ongoing conversation about issues and ideas that affect our communities and to provide opportunities to interact with artists and the artistic process. Admission is free. Surrey Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the City of Surrey, Province of BC through BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Surrey Art Gallery Association.

Kids will experience everything dinosaur at this free, all ages drop-in.

They will make dino crafts, go on a dinosaur hunt, touch fossils and try on dinosaur feet. Planned games include pin the tail on the dinosaur, dinosaur bean bag toss and dinosaur BINGO. The Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit will also be open during activities.

• Tuesday, March 19 to Friday, March 22 | 10am to 1pm
• Tuesday, March 26 to Friday, March 29 | 10am to 1pm