BATTATContemporary

Beth Stuart

two sticks in a shed

January 14 – February 26, 2011

Opening: Thursday, January 13, 2011, 6PM-8.30PM

Battat Contemporary is pleased to present two sticks in a shed, an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Beth Stuart. Through a playful and clever vocabulary of forms, color and brushwork Stuart's paintings and sculpture lure the viewer into a world that, though teeming with classic struggles inherent to painting, attempts to convey a more personal language drawn from her research of 60's feminist art criticism, surrealist philosophy and textile arts. There is a subtle humor found in the form, a sensitive exchange between artist and viewer that belies the age-old materials of oil paint, plaster and linen from which the works are constructed. The oddly shaped canvases, which inherently evoke an individual through their uniqueness, call into question the traditional figure-ground with an object that occupies the same space as the viewer. She states 'rather than symbolically or mimetically representing bodies in space these works function instead like portraits of sensations, personalities, and mannerisms. Installed together in a space, they seem like the characters at a gathering, leaning against the wall looking askance at each other.'

Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Beth Stuart is graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. A recent semi-finalist for the RBC Canadian Painting Competition, she has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions including solo projects with BOARD OF DIRECTORS in Toronto and the MacDonald Stewart Arts Centre, Guelph as well as group exhibitons at Georgia Sherman Projects, Toronto and Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal.

Battat Contemporary
www.battatcontemporary.com

7245 Alexandra St #100
Montreal (Quebec) H2R 2Y9
T: 514 750 9566
F: 514 750 9577