Anne Griffiths | The Bliss of Rain | Galerie Kristin Hjellegjerde Berlin | 05.11.-19.12.2026

One evening, after a day of rain showers, Anne Griffiths drove home from her studio. It had been a hot summer on Vancouver Island, and months of sunshine had left the land dry and parched. She rolled down the windows to breathe in the scent of the damp earth and listen to the birdsong amongst the trees, which sounded so loud and cheerful that to her it seemed like a celebration. This moment was the starting point for ‘The Bliss of Rain’, Griffiths’ solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde, which features fourteen new paintings that depict not so much the rain itself as the way it is experienced – both in the landscape and within the body.

Griffiths’ work is strongly influenced by her natural surroundings and the distinctive weather conditions on Canada’s west coast, where the predominantly grey and damp climate creates a calm, contemplative atmosphere. Whilst she has always found rain soothing, she is interested in how the absence or presence of rain is now increasingly coming to the fore in our consciousness, and how it is now perceived as a gift in some parts of the world where it was once regarded as a nuisance. This shifting relationship with rain lends Griffiths’ paintings a particular poignancy. Rather than transporting us to a specific place, they evoke moments that we have experienced with intense physical sensation and retained in our memories.

Dreams Afloat, oil on canvas, 86,5 x 86,5 cm, 2026. Courtesy of Galerie Kristin Hjellegjerde

Take, for example, ‘Leaning into Hope’, where we find ourselves surrounded by colours and impressions. We might imagine walking through a wood after a heavy downpour, the leaves on the trees glistening and heavy, the scent of bark and moss – or perhaps we are seeking shelter from the rain there, whilst it blurs the landscape around us. Or could it, as the title suggests, be a vision that appears to us in a dream, with the yellow patches suggesting flickering sunlight or the promise of morning? “My feelings lie very close to the surface of the work,” says Griffiths. “It’s hard to hide them at the moment. By giving them honest titles, I hope to speak to people about their own feelings as well.”

Almost every composition we see here is structured around a waterline, with the forest above and its reflection below. The result is a double image: we see the object itself and its reflection, the solid and the dissolved. This is perhaps most evident in the painting that gives the exhibition its name, in which forms seem simultaneously to hang downwards and to reach upwards. The effect is gently disorientating and quietly recalibrates the way we approach and understand the picture. In this effect lies something of the instability of memory, a quality that also points to Griffiths’s distinctive creative process. She works quickly and exclusively from memory, rather than relying on sketches or photographs, allowing herself to be guided by the blending and movement of the colours on the canvas.

Savouring this Moment, 2026, Oil on canvas, 160 x 160 cm |63 x 63 in. Courtesy of Galerie Kristin Hjellegjerde

We, too, as viewers, are guided by colour. The shades of blue and cool greys in paintings such as ‘Night Path 2’ and ‘Tasting of a Wet Forest’ are contrasted in ‘A Legacy Left For Others’ and ‘Epiphany’ by shades of rust, orange and ochre, with the dry heat of summer captured through blurred, sun-bleached forms. And then there are transitional works such as ‘Savouring the Moment’, in which the heat is broken up by undulating lines in vivid blue and dark green patches – the landscape seems to be on the verge of a transformation, renewed by water. Here, as throughout the exhibition, rain becomes more than just a passing weather phenomenon: it is a moment of respite, a source of hope and of continued existence.

About Anne Griffiths
Anne Griffiths is a Canadian-born artist whose work is inspired by the expression of landscape through innovative interplay of colour and form. Griffiths’ artistic practice involves an exploration of memory and space through her gestural line work and a dynamic colour palette. Her works reflect her interest in how places are stored in the memory, and she thus focuses on the representation of an imaginary landscape. Griffiths studied painting at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada, and in 1986 obtained a diploma in design and illustration through the IDEA programme at Capilano University. After more than twenty years as an art director and designer in Vancouver, she has devoted herself entirely to painting since 2011.

Outwardly Flow, 2026, Oil on canvas, 137 x 163 cm | 54 x 64 1/8 in, Courtesy of Galerie Kristin Hjellegjerde

Solo exhibitions include “A Tale Worth Telling”, The Finch Project, Edinburgh (2026), “The Bliss of Rain”, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2026), “Just Beyond”, MAAT Gallery, Paris (2026), ‘Following Echoes’, Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver (2026), ‘Beaver Trail’, NQ Gallery, Antwerp (2026), ‘Mapping Nature’, Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto (2026), ‘Everything Under The Sun’, Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver (2025), ‘Woodland Symphony’, Sister By Studio Ashby+The Finch Project (2024), ‘The Nature Cure’, Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver (2024), ‘Gliding In’, Dianna Witte Gallery, Toronto (2023), ‘Becoming The Story’, Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver (2023), ‘From This Place’, Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver (2022), Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2021), Dianna Witte Gallery, Toronto, Canada (2021), Duthie Gallery, Salt Spring Island (2016), ‘Observations’, Horseshoe Bay Trading Co., West Vancouver (2014), ‘All of This’, Tartooful Gallery, North Vancouver (2010), ‘Passing Architecture’, Private Gallery, Vancouver (2009).

Group exhibitions include the Stockholm Market Art Fair with The Finch Project (2026), ‘Ethereal’ at the Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2025), ‘Tropical’ at the MAAT Gallery, Paris, France (2025), and the London Art Fair with The Finch Project, London, United Kingdom (2025), ‘Wanderlust’ with The Finch Project at Noho Studios, London, UK (2025), ‘Palmae’ at MAAT Gallery, Paris (2025), the Enter Art Fair with The Finch Project, Copenhagen (2025), ‘Goth In A Landscape’ at the University of Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK (2024), Lapada Art Fair with The Finch Project, London, United Kingdom (2024), Art Toronto with the Dianna Witte Gallery, Toronto (2024), Art Toronto with the Dianna Witte Gallery and the Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto (2023), Art Toronto with the Dianna Witte Gallery, Toronto (2022), ‘Uprising’, Görne Castle, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2022), ‘Summer Show’, Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver (2022), ‘Holiday Show’, Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver (2021), ‘Winter Salon’, Dianna Witte Gallery, Toronto (2021).

Taking a Breather, 2026, Oil on canvas, 52 x 64 cm | 20 1/2 x 25 1/4 in. Courtesy of Galerie Kristin Hjellegjerde

Highlights and Collections
Throughout her career, Anne Griffiths has taken part in numerous exhibitions, primarily in Canada. In recent years, however, her works have also gained recognition on the European exhibition scene, including at the Maat Gallery in France, the NQ Gallery in Antwerp, the Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in Germany and The Finch Project in the UK. In 2026, she published her first book, *Mapping Nature*, which brings together a selection of her works from 2022 to 2025. In 2018, she undertook an artist-in-residence programme under the guidance of Harold Klunder, which is reflected in the intensity of her colour palette and her textured brushwork. Furthermore, her works can be found in major public and private collections, including the Royal Bank of Canada; The Chancery Rosewood, London; Chelsea Barracks, London; Varley in London and New York; Albion Nord, London, UK; Toyon Arts + Studio Ashby, Los Angeles, USA; Paterson Zevi, London, UK; Studio Ashby, London, UK; Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia; Paterson Zevi, London, UK; Chard Development, Vancouver; The Hilton, Victoria.