NQ Gallery Antwerp - ‘Beaver Trails’ - March 2026 Group Show
Johannes Nagel, Anne Griffiths, and NQ Gallery owner Niqui van Olpphen (Left to Right)
Beaver Trail, my debut show with NQ Gallery in Antwerp, opened on the 8th of March and runs through the 26th of April. My paintings are installed in the gallery's Helen Frankenthaler Room, with German ceramicist Johannes Nagel presenting his solo show The Die Is Cast in the main space.
My husband Jeff and I arrived in Antwerp a few days before the opening and were made to feel truly welcome from the start. Gallery founder Niqui van Olphen and her husband Harro Elsborg generously treated us to an extraordinary evening at the Antwerp opera house — a production of Verdi's Nabucco that neither of us will forget quickly — and a wonderful pre-opening dinner with artists and collectors that reminded me how much I love the connections this work creates beyond the studio.
The opening itself was everything I could have hoped for. It was a real pleasure to meet the Antwerp audience in person and to see the paintings in that beautiful space alongside Johannes's remarkable ceramic sculptures. I was also honoured to have a representative from the Canadian Embassy in Brussels visit the gallery for a tour and visit. This support for Canadian artists working and showing abroad is a huge support and much appreciated.
Antwerp-based writer Yves Joris attended the pre-opening dinner and wrote about it for Gallery Viewer. His piece captures something of the conversation between our two bodies of work that I found genuinely moving to read and one phrase he used in an associated Instagram post struck me “….Griffiths traces a path that feels grown rather than drawn.” This is one of the most eloquent ways I’ve heard my work interpreted.
It was a wonderful first visit to Antwerp, as well as a warm introduction into NQ Gallery, and I look forward to building on these new friendships in the future. I look forward to a solo show with NQ Gallery in 2027.
Read Yves Joris's review on Gallery Viewer
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
As a new addition to the gallery, I wanted the first work I shared with NQ Gallery’s community to introduce where I come from in Canada, and the important role that nature plays within my artistic practice.
I grew up with the idea that Canadians are often seen as humble yet resilient. While this is sometimes gently parodied, I do believe that a quiet steadiness shapes how many of us move through the world. For me, there is no more familiar symbol of that spirit than the beaver — a small creature known for its patient and unwavering work. It quietly reshapes its surroundings, building structures that alter the flow of water and create new paths through the forest.
The image of a beaver trail suggests movement and discovery — subtle routes that lead us into places we might not otherwise reach.
My work invites the viewer into intimate spaces within the landscapes of British Columbia. They are places I return to again and again, not to document them, but to experience them fully. When I paint, I am not recreating a specific view; I am responding to the sensation of being immersed — the shifts of light, the density of air, the feeling of entering somewhere both expansive and intimate.
Each painting becomes a reflection of that encounter and offerings of perspective — moments of attention, discovery, and renewal.
NQ Gallery
Mechelsesteenweg 11
2018 Antwerp
Belgium
+32 4 685 32 568
info@nqgallery.be
Gallery Photographs - Kimberley Dhollander
At the opening on the afternoon of March 8th
SELECTED WORKS
BEAVER TRAIL - oil on canvas - 137cm x 162cm - 2025
LIFELINES - oil and oil stick on canvas - 90cm x 100cm - 2025
AS TIME FLOATS BY - oil and oil stick on canvas - 160cm x 160cm - 2025
WALK ALONG WILLOWS - oil and oil stick on canvas - 120cm x 160cm - 2025