A conversation with exhibition artist, Anna Betbeze, about her practice and current body of work.

With greater experience of becoming absorbed by a material world, we are more estranged from nature than ever. We have fleeting memories of landscapes, rivers, and clouds. With atmospheric gravity, Betbeze engages this alienation, takes it to task, giving us a new way to enter. 

Venus, is a collection of works that engages directly with natural processes to evoke the garden, a place that has been central to Betbeze’s work over the years. The works are built with performative gestures and unusual materials. You can imagine the artist wrestling with these furry carpets: burning, cutting, sewing, gouging, dyeing, endlessly repurposing. The distortion of the fur, the blemishes and holes, conjure our most visceral senses. Betbeze’s works unfurl beyond human proportion to provide the enveloping experience of a garden. Saturated colors feel synthetic and raw; color is time and renewal, something wet spilling out of deep space.  Betbeze’s version of nature is deeply tactile. Each work is a mirror that reflects and echoes, confronting unfiltered desire.


Bio

Anna Betbeze

Anna Betbeze (b. 1980, Mobile, AL) has had solo exhibitions at Nina Johnson Miami, Markus Lüttgen Cologne, Luxembourg & Dayan in London, Kate Werble Gallery New York, and Francois Gebaly, Los Angeles. Her work has been shown at institutions such as MOMA PS1, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and among other galleries and institutions around the world. Her works are in the permanent collections of The Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University and the High Museum in Atlanta. Her work has been reviewed in The New York TimesThe New YorkerArtforumModern PaintersNew York MagazineFrieze, and The Los Angeles Times. She is a recent recipient of the Rome Prize. Betbeze grew up in Columbus, Georgia and currently lives in New York City. She contiually returns to Georgia to work. The works in this exhibit were made in both cities. Betbeze attended the University of Georgia, where she earned a BFA before receiving an MFA from Yale in 2006.


Upcoming Events

March 28 / 6:00pm
Opening

Stacks Squares Opening

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Join us for the opening of Corner Office, an exhibition with Stacks Squares in Contemporary On-Site.

March 28 / 6:30pm
Contemporary Talks

Villa Albertine Resident Artist Talk

Ngnima Sarr (aka T.I.E)

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Ngnima Sarr (aka T.I.E) will discuss her project “Odyssey in Utero”, where she explores diasporic and existential questions through the perspective of the female body.

March 30 / 12:30pm
Contemporary Talks

Atlanta for Artists

A Conversation

Presented by Artadia
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Discuss the ever-evolving Atlanta arts ecosystem and how we can further encourage it to thrive.

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