With 2021 heading towards a close, it’s become the perfect time to reflect on what the past year has meant to us.

One unignorable fact we all share is that living under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic has brought a certain unpredictability to our lives, along with a lot of change. New experiences, new things to deal with, loss, growth -- all of which rang true for Canadian artist Sylvia Haw.

We had the pleasure of interviewing her about her upcoming painting exhibition set to be held in Yokohama and Tokyo titled, Comme des Fleurs「花のように」. Sylvia talked openly about how the exhibition came forth from a time of difficulty, and how she learned how to use her art as a means to express herself in the first place.

“This past year was a real struggle for me and I’m sure it has been for a lot of people because of the pandemic,” Sylvia tells us. “I had to move a lot. I got into an accident. I had to get surgery, then healed from that. I had to go through a breakup.”

Fortunately for Sylvia, she’s always had something to fall back on during times like these: art. From a young age, her mother had taught her the value of nurturing her creativity, and it’s never left her since.

“She used to draw a lot,” Sylvia explains to us about her mother. “When she moved to Canada, she could only do minimum wage jobs so she started working as a seamstress. That really messed up her hands, so she couldn’t draw anymore. But she would teach me at home; she passed on what she liked to do. I started drawing when I was 4 or 5 -- just doodling -- but then it slowly evolved from that.”

Over 20 years later, she’s still using her drawings and paintings as a way to not only help her process the events of her life in 2021, but also to show her resiliency. After everything she went through, she shared with us an epiphany she had upon looking back: “I realized this side of me that I never knew I had. I was able to overcome so many difficulties. Then I realized, everyone has the potential to be resilient if they take the time to love themselves or care for themselves.”

This is ultimately the message she hopes to get across with her upcoming exhibition, Comme des Fleurs「花のように」. The title is in both Japanese and French (Sylvia is originally from the majority French-speaking city of Montréal), and both phrases translate to “Like a flower.”

To Sylvia, people are just like flowers. While she was going through everything that 2021 threw her way, she switched her attention to the things that she can control, things like her artistic pursuits. She started a digital illustration brand at the start of the year called “meromero”, alongside continuing to create traditional paintings. Over time, her brand grew to a bigger audience than she anticipated, and it was at this point that she realized focusing her energy into herself and the things that made her happy enabled her to flourish.

This was Sylvia’s own way of blooming; similar to a flower, she needed to nurture herself with healthy things like love, joy, and strength so she could show the world the beauty she had within. “I want people to face their insecurities and realize that if we give ourselves some grace -- accept yourself, don’t isolate yourself, be aware of your emotions -- we can all be our best selves.”

Visitors to her Yokohama exhibition can expect at least 16 different pieces painted on wood, with her Tokyo exhibition featuring more than 20 paintings and additional art installations of paper mobiles. One overarching characteristic of her paintings is her use of light, dreamy colors, something she purposely chose after learning about “how colors evoke certain feelings of nostalgia.”

“I was trying to study how colors evoke certain kinds of feelings in people -- like you’re reminiscing, like something feels familiar -- without depicting the form of an object itself.” Combining this with natural elements like the water, fish, and mountains found in her work, she wants to offer her exhibition visitors “a dreamy world you can escape [to].”

More than anything else however, the flowers are the true mainstays of Sylvia’s exhibition, there to serve as a reminder of her original message: “Every person, every single one of us, has a bud inside waiting to be found and nurtured [...] Maybe some people will find this [message] cheesy but what matters is that in the end, this means a lot to me.”

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You can find the complete details for Sylvia’s solo exhibition below. She will be present at the venue on all exhibition days except for December 4, 2021, when she will be one of the participating artists at the Tokyo Love Hotels Vol.25 event. You can also find the event details for that below.

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COMME DES FLEURS「花のように」Exhibition

Solo Exhibition by Sylvia Haw (Event page, Gallery website)

Yokohama Exhibition Details:
Date: December 3-6 & December 10-13, 2021
Time: 13:00-19:00
Venue: Launch Pad Gallery, 5-186-8 Ishikawa-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231-0868
Admission: Free

Tokyo Exhibition Details:
Date: January 27- February 2, 2022
Time: 12:00-20:00 (Until 17:00 on Wednesdays)
Venue: Gankagarou Gallery, 5-8-11 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0022
Admission: Free

Tokyo Love Hotels Vol.25

Exhibition and Pop-up Store Event with Sylvia Haw (Event page)
Date: December 4, 2021
Time: 17:00-23:00
Venue: Sankeys Penthouse, 10F/11F Q Plaza Harajuku, 6-28-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001
Admission: 1,500 yen