Bea Modisett: Field Work Reception

March 21, 2014

Bea Modisett: “Field Work”
On View: March 19–April 6
Reception: Thu., March 20, 5-7pm
Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery
Artist Talk: Wed., March 26, 11:30am
montserrat.edu/galleries/schlosberg

Montserrat College of Art is proud to present, Field Work an exhibition featuring painter Bea Modisett ‘07. Field Work is rooted in the artist’s passion to explore landscape. Modisett is inspired by her experiences visiting unfamiliar places such as Bangkok, Cambodia and the Western US. The artist subjectively holds on to each encounter through her paintings. This exhibition explores how travel reconstructs and impacts the remembrance of place.

The title, Field Work references the travel and experience that ultimately serves as research for each of Modisett’s abstraction. Within the artist’s practice, painting and travel are dependent parts. “They both fulfill the desires to create and overcome problems, to learn, to put myself in uncomfortable situations, to experience the intense highs and lows… It challenges me in so many ways and excites parts of my brain that may normally lay dormant. When I return from any type of travel, I seek to recreate that stimulation and excitement in my paintings – this always leads to growth.”

To satisfy a more immediate result, Modisett is currently experimented with charcoal. “Settling In”, (2014) is an abstract, modular landscape constructed in charcoal. The piece embodies the core of Field Work- provoking investigation and study. The grayscale of charcoal necessitates the viewer to linger in order to observe the surface more carefully. Unlike her work in oil, which uses color to designate sky, rock and land, charcoal negates any of these visual clues that aide in the readership of the piece. Even the title, “Settling In” reinforces its anomonity. Without these more obvious “hints” to help the viewer to read the painting, the more important it becomes to that the viewer slow down and do some examining or “field work” of their own.

Photo Cred: Terry Slater


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