In Nadya Isabella’s debut solo exhibition A Toast to This Moment, everyday encounters open portals into hidden worlds. Phone screens, ponds, makeup, personal flames, moods, and urban ecology offer gateways into desires floating between fantasy and reality. Gesturing to a vivid elsewhere, Nadya’s paintings emerge from a process of daydreaming and remembering: inflatable tubes create space for peaceful ruminations at the centre of a lake; a cigarette droops between lips while lit behind an umbrella sheltering the wind; fluffy day glow moths gossip, sway, and nibble light; dew drops on spider silks mirror a thousand moons over an ocean.

The picture plane is a diary-—a place to index and recall aspirations, secrets, crushes. Snapshots kept on Nadya’s camera roll of past parties and loved ones are translated into painting. Shahin’s Cake (2022) and Baby’s Cake (2021) are part of an ongoing series documenting cakes shared with friends at celebratory gatherings. Mimicking the size of greeting cards, the intimately scaled paintings show the cakes lit with candles, catching the hold at the top of an inhale before blowing a wish. Within the ritual of celebration, a suspended breath opens a world of possibility.