Sylvia Tait | Repertoire

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Sylvia Tate, “Circle Game,” 2025

oil on canvas, 30 x 38 in. (courtesy of the Gallery)

Opening Reception: Saturday March 22, 2-4pm

Bau-Xi Gallery proudly presents Repertoire, a retrospective solo exhibition by celebrated Vancouver-based abstract artist Sylvia Tait. This exhibition constitutes an expansive journey through the artist’s creative evolution from the 1960s to the present, prompted most often by the energy and shifting focuses of the changing times. From vibrant canvases to the restraint of hard-edge serigraphs and the nuanced monochromatic Anthologies series, Tait’s distinct balance of colour, form and structure invites a rich visual dialogue.

Sylvia Tait studied for four years at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts under Arthur Lismer, Jacques de Tonnancoeur, and Eldon Grier.  She has been represented by Bau-Xi Gallery since 1977. Since the late 1950s, Tait has exhibited across North America in solo and group shows. Her paintings are in private, corporate and public collections in Germany, Switzerland, France, the USA, Mexico, Ecuador, UAE, Hong Kong, Japan, South Asia and Canada.

Enduring artist statement excerpts by Sylvia Tait:

“What matters to me is the process and reaching a temporary conclusion for an experience not easily expressible in any other medium… I really just like to place colours beside each other and watch the interaction.” 

– from solo exhibition Fractions and Sequences, 2001

“I see an energy in my paintings, different paths leading to interpretations of feelings of nature and life forces.” 

- from solo exhibition Making Tracks, 2014

“The four-sided forms in the paintings are cool, uncluttered areas that can either house symbols or graphics, or stand alone; they can be sensual, free-floating or firmly grounded. The breakups, or slashes, are the changes and interruptions. They are the shifts in energy. Nothing is permanent.” 

- from solo exhibition Paintings Without Words, 2023