Description
Beth Letain is a former biologist who shifted her focus to painting 10 years ago. Since then, she has worked within an intentionally limited vocabulary of forms which reference circuitry, portals, and mitosis – all points of transfer, duplication and connection. While relentlessly pursuing the minimal forms which preoccupy her, Letain embraces mistakes and uncertainty in her work.
The artist laboriously [...]
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Beth Letain is a former biologist who shifted her focus to painting 10 years ago. Since then, she has worked within an intentionally limited vocabulary of forms which reference circuitry, portals, and mitosis – all points of transfer, duplication and connection. While relentlessly pursuing the minimal forms which preoccupy her, Letain embraces mistakes and uncertainty in her work.
The artist laboriously applies gesso, layer by layer and sands it down until it becomes a rich, velvety surface. This deliberately long process is contrasted by the fast, almost gestural execution of the formal shapes in oil paint. Sherman Sam, for Artforum, writes of Letain’s work that “the appeal of the Berlin-based Canadian’s stripped-back abstractions lies in their breezy sense of touch and rhythm delivered on a majestic scale”. Her recent solo exhibitions include Peres Projects, Berlin and Pace Gallery, London. She has also presented work in group exhibitions at Peres Projects, Berlin, and Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen curated by Christian Malycha. Letain’s work has been reviewed in leading critical publications including Artforurm, FlashArt, ArtNews, and Border Crossings.
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