Nathan Birch
Born: 1978
Lives in Victoria BC, Canada.
My current series, Unsettled Landscapes, investigates the intersection of traditional Canadian landscape painting and digital alteration. Using AI-enhanced tools to empty scenes of human artifacts, I translate these edited, depopulated realities into precise photorealistic paintings. This process creates a tension between the familiar comfort of representational realism and the eerie void left by modern technology.
By painting these digitally sanitized spaces, my goal is to push the legacy of Canadian landscape art into a contemporary context. The work shifts the focus from a traditional, classical, regional beauty to a critical examination of presence, absence, and our changing relationship with the natural world. Rather than presenting a simple window into an idyllic view of nature, these paintings situate my practice at the boundary where the serene physical environment meets pioneering digital manipulation.
Education
MEd in Art Education, 2027, University of Victoria, BC
BFA in Painting, 2000, Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, Alberta
Exhibitions
2019 New Paintings, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2016 New Paintings, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2014 New Landscapes, Winchester Gallery, Victoria
2014 New Paintings, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary
2015- 2002 Toronto International Art Fair, represented by Douglas Udell Galleries and Mira Godard Gallery
2013 Paint and Place, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2013 Waters, Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton
2012 New Paintings, Winchester Gallery, Victoria
2011 New Work, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2011 New Paintings, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary
2010 New Paintings, Winchester Gallery, Victoria
2009 New Works, Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton
2009 New Paintings, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2008 New Work, Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver
2008 New Paintings, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary
2007 New Paintings, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2006 Christmas Show featuring Nathan Birch, Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton
2006 More or Less, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary
2005 New Work, Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver
2005 New Paintings, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2004 New Paintings, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary
2004 New Paintings, Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
2003 New Work, Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton
2003 Summer Landscape, Group show, Mira Godard
Gallery, Toronto
2001- 2002 Artrageous 1 & 2, Group shows, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, ACAD, Calgary
2001 Seven Months of Landscape, Solo show, Art is Vital Gallery, Calgary
Collections
ScotiaBank; TD Bank; Canada Council For the Arts; Alberta Foundation for the Arts; Shaw Collection; Vermillion Energy Trust, Calgary; Wasteless Environmental Corporation;The Granite Club, Calgary; OPSEU Pension Trust; Bennett Jones; Four Seasons Hotel; The Georgia Hotel, Vancouver; The Colart Collection and numerous private collections throughout North America