Bre Shanahan
Flux Forest
July 3rd-24th
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Closing Finnissage: Friday July 24th 5:00-9:00pm
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Show Description
Bre Shanahan: Flux Forest transforms everyday Canadian plastic objects into a sculptural pseudo-woodland fabricated in wood. Employing traditional woodworking and digital fabrication, the installation invites viewers to reconsider ubiquitous disposable items through material translation. Tree trunks formed from stacked bottles, foliage from fence patterns, and wooden "microplastics" compose an immersive ecosystem.
The title invokes plastics' thermoplastic flux, their capacity for endless reshaping that enabled post-war disposable culture. Both plastic and wood share designed invisibility, blending seamlessly into their surroundings. Yet these wooden sculptures will degrade over time, proving paradoxically weaker than their petroleum-based originals, confronting the normalization and invisibility of waste in our natural environments.
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Bio
Bre Shanahan (she/they) lives and works on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenousaunee and Mississaugas. Working primarily in sculpture and drawing, her practice investigates problematic dualisms through sustained material inquiries. The work manifests as concentrated chapters, extended investigations into specific mediums and methods that reveal complexities embedded in binary thinking.
Beyond the studio, Shanahan's practice extends into pedagogical and community-engaged work, treating the gallery as a site for collaborative knowledge production.
Shanahan holds an MFA from Concordia University (2019) and a BA from the University of Toronto (2014). A SSHRC recipient (2017), her artist-teacher collective STAC received a SSHRC grant in 2025. Residencies include programs in Austria, China and North Carolina. Currently she is an inaugural resident artist at the Art Gallery of Burlington, member of Assembly Gallery Artist Collective (Hamilton) and Quite Ourselves Artist Collective (Montreal), maintaining a studio practice at the Cotton Factory.
Image: Of Wonders, 2026, Ash wood, Baltic Birch, oil. Image courtesy of the RGB
--
Closing Finnissage: Friday July 24th 5:00-9:00pm
––
Show Description
Bre Shanahan: Flux Forest transforms everyday Canadian plastic objects into a sculptural pseudo-woodland fabricated in wood. Employing traditional woodworking and digital fabrication, the installation invites viewers to reconsider ubiquitous disposable items through material translation. Tree trunks formed from stacked bottles, foliage from fence patterns, and wooden "microplastics" compose an immersive ecosystem.
The title invokes plastics' thermoplastic flux, their capacity for endless reshaping that enabled post-war disposable culture. Both plastic and wood share designed invisibility, blending seamlessly into their surroundings. Yet these wooden sculptures will degrade over time, proving paradoxically weaker than their petroleum-based originals, confronting the normalization and invisibility of waste in our natural environments.
––
Bio
Bre Shanahan (she/they) lives and works on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenousaunee and Mississaugas. Working primarily in sculpture and drawing, her practice investigates problematic dualisms through sustained material inquiries. The work manifests as concentrated chapters, extended investigations into specific mediums and methods that reveal complexities embedded in binary thinking.
Beyond the studio, Shanahan's practice extends into pedagogical and community-engaged work, treating the gallery as a site for collaborative knowledge production.
Shanahan holds an MFA from Concordia University (2019) and a BA from the University of Toronto (2014). A SSHRC recipient (2017), her artist-teacher collective STAC received a SSHRC grant in 2025. Residencies include programs in Austria, China and North Carolina. Currently she is an inaugural resident artist at the Art Gallery of Burlington, member of Assembly Gallery Artist Collective (Hamilton) and Quite Ourselves Artist Collective (Montreal), maintaining a studio practice at the Cotton Factory.
Image: Of Wonders, 2026, Ash wood, Baltic Birch, oil. Image courtesy of the RGB