"Circle" by Elizabeth Barnes
Elizabeth Barnes’ new exhibition Juice is opening November 28th, 2009 and will run until December 23rd.
Born and educated in the United States, Barnes currently lives in Vancouver. Her collections can be found throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Barnes’ work is heavily influenced by science and technology, but it’s the organicness that still exists that’s intriguing. Her works are the perfect utopia: a place where technology and nature seem to not only be in balance, but enhance each other.
Exhibition Details
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 28, 2009 from 2 pm to 5 pm. Artist in Attendance.
Date: November 28, 2009 to December 23, 2009
Location: Herringer Kiss Gallery
Address: 709A – 11 Avenue SW, Calgary
Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10 am to 5:30 pm and Saturday 11 am to 5 pm.
"Surge" by Elizabeth Barnes
Juice by Elizabeth Barnes
On Juice, from the Herringer Kiss Gallery:
As a post-1960 painter, in considering the “space of art” from a more contemporary perspective, Elizabeth Barnes finds herself drawn to the grid, but to pondering an expanded grid. This grid embraces the many levels of information now available, whether through the lens of digital culture and virtual space, or as a reference to the twisted and layered grids of chaos theory.
Within the geometry of Einstein’s space-time and Mandelbrot’s fractals, a new map of reality has emerged which embraces dimensions beyond those historically used to understand our world. Considering this context, one cannot be divorced or separate from nature, as the chaotic grids embedded deep within nature become inclusive in the re-conceptualization of the grid. This idea defines Elizabeth’s constant struggle to reconcile the need for nature to enter her work.
Artist’s statement from View Art Gallery:
As a post-historical painter in an increasingly complicated world, I believe abstraction is a means for expressing the complexity that informs the way we think and live. Out of an interest in the repeated patterns of life, my investigation goes beyond what we see in our actual world, to the worlds that are revealed to us through the use of imaging technologies, as well as the new, virtual worlds surrounding us. I am especially interested in the place where science, technology, mathematics and art meet and feed one another. I attempt to assimilate these complex threads through the layering of paint. The subtle shifts of colour create a tenuous balance, fluctuating between visceral and cerebral, paralleling the many layers of meaning available in our current information age. The interaction of colour and form appeals to a sensory moment which reminds the viewer of the interconnectedness of all living things.
In my most recent work I incorporate computer generated images of various patterns and forms that have a very specific resemblance to the natural world. The work invokes multiple questions. Where do the natural and synthetic meet and how do they affect one another? How does the increasing presence of a whole new breed of hybrids affect our daily lives? How can technology and science serve humanity in an ethical fashion?
My work reflects an ongoing struggle for balance that is present in our larger culture. This sense of balance is integral to the history of aesthetics and the act of making art. Through my work I strive to attain this harmony.
