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Minh Nguyen blurs the boundaries between scientific illustration and artistic study with her larger-than-life Bee #2. Nguyen uses oil pastel, conté, graphite and charcoal to create a layered, lithographic print, much like freeze frames of a bee in motion. The artist bases her spontaneous, yet detailed drawing, and similar bug portraits, on her collection of dead insect husks. For Nguyen, this body of work is profoundly influenced by the Buddhist nature-centric notions of impermanence and mutability — a philosophical foundation rooted in the artist’s Vietnamese-Chinese-Canadian heritage. The insects’ exaggerated size lends a certain heroism to these otherwise minute creatures, bringing their emotive and sensorial presence into focus.