Olivia Harks solo exhibition Modern Garden of Earthly Delights is on display May 9th - July 2nd 2026 at the 'Walkway Gallery' at the Timms Community Center (20399 Douglas Crescent, Langley BC V3A 4B3). The Timms Community Centre is open from Monday - Friday from 6:00 AM - 10:00 PM, Saturday from 8:00 - 6:00 PM, and Sunday from 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM.
Timms 'Walkway Gallery' Olivia Harks Featured Artists Talk
Date: Saturday, May 23rd, 2026
Time: 10:30 - 11:30am
Location: Timms Community Centre, Council Chambers
20399 Douglas Cres, Langley, BC V3A 4B3
Free to attend, and open to all ages!
Artist Statement - Modern Garden of Earthly Delights
What is a Modern Garden of Earthly Delights? Is it a place to just exist, a place of happiness? Is it hedonistic or is it virtuous?
The concept behind this exhibition was loosely inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights painting (c1490-1510). This triptych shows a central scene of celebration and mortal happiness, dancing and debauchery. Framed on the left is what heaven might look like - an open peaceful land of plenty - and on the right a hellscape - people being eaten, flayed, and even used as a cello.
While this piece can be interpreted as a warning against temptation, my collection is a different take on reward and punishment. Not that it's decided by a force greater than ourselves for our afterlife, but that we create it inside ourselves within our own lifetime.
So much of life is out of our control, but how we internalize and react to things that happen is what can shape our reality. Where we direct our thoughts, our energy, is what our life becomes. We can essentially create our own heaven or hell, within our lifetime, largely from our focus and intention.
There is an undercurrent of something deeper trying to surface. There’s a darkness, a sinister element, not with intent to harm, but with a harsh face of all that is. There is so much love and beauty around us, yet we carry conflict, because that is human nature.
This show is about all that makes us human, what we explore in our fleeting moment of existence, what we have the opportunity to experience. What it is inside all of us that feels so much. Through light, shadow, figure and symbol, I aim to illuminate both the darkness and euphoria of our existence, and allow a visual narrative to emerge.
About the Artist - Olivia Harks
Growing up in New Zealand and now living on the West Coast of Canada, my practice draws from intuition, research, and the subconscious. My work emerges from dreamlike imagery and interior landscapes; this instinctive process continues to inform paintings that sit between symbolism and narrative.
I paint to express parts of our experience that I don’t have words for, the felt parts that don’t have a recognizable face or a name or even a shape. I hope through creating to come face-to-face with a deeper part of that experience.
Rather than literal retellings, I work in fragments—figures, textiles, objects, and abstracted forms, that suggest a story without illustrating it completely. These paintings function like excerpts, allowing space for complexity, ambiguity, and personal interpretation.