Sascha Braunig’s exhibition takes its name, Lay Figure, from the jointed doll used by the B.C.-born artist as a stand-in for the human figure. These beautifully crafted paintings portray a figure breaking free of pictorial grids or twisting itself outside of the typical depiction of the female body, morphing into a neon sign or a dress form. Now based in Portland, Me., Braunig often makes three-dimensional models of real-world objects in the studio as part of the process of creating her uneasy otherworldly compositions.

Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ont. (October 2 to December 30, 2022)

Tehran-born, Toronto-based artist Azadeh Elmizadeh creates ethereal works that seem to emerge out of the mist the longer you look at them. What appear to be hazy abstract colour fields give way to figurative images that slowly reveal themselves. Elmizadeh first confronts us with the physical surface of the canvas; then, as we become aware of that, we are pulled into an ever deepening experience.

Franz Kaka, Toronto (September 10 to October 8, 2022)

Sylvie Bouchard is an established Quebec painter and part of a wave of artists who helped re-establish the importance of figurative painting in the province in the early aughts; her impact was such that she was given a retrospective at the Montreal Musée d’art contemporain in 2006. In her current show, Bouchard presents new work inspired by Quebec’s vast shorelines. Mixing real and imaginary landscapes in her work, she amps up the theatricality by including structures and objects that allow the viewer to follow a deep connective narrative as they experience her pieces.

McBride Contemporain, Montreal (September 15 to October 31, 2022)

British artist Liam Gillick has been invited by Fogo Island Arts to participate in the
World Weather Project, a network of artists and art collectives from 28 countries and geographical sites around the world, each proposing works that prompt us to discuss and confront climate change. Gillick’s contribution, A Variability Quantifier, will be an
operational weather station that gathers local weather data and offers a public space for the discussion and contemplation of our natural environment. The weather station takes
the form of a scaled-down fishing stage—a small shingled waterside building with a dock attached—which is a common Fogo Island structure used in the fishing industry.

Fogo Island Arts, Fogo Island, N.L. (June 2022 to June 2023)