Situations of Liminality and Transformation
Chase Gallery
September 15, 2023 to November 4, 2023
Situations of Liminality and Transformation is a new exhibition by Chicago artist Sheri Rush and Canadian artist Jared Betts comprised of large-scale paintings on the threshold of abstraction and representation.
Rush and Betts were brought together through their shared reverence for the gift of nature, process-based painting, and the emotive power of color. Their synergies sparked the idea to co-create this bewitched portal to another world. They encourage the viewer to leave reality behind and immerse themselves in a colorful enchanted forest fantasy.
As symbolized in folklore, mythology, and contemporary fantasy worlds, woodlands can be places of darkness and danger or peaceful refuges of solace. After years of political turmoil and isolation, this exhibition offers an escape into a reflective, happy, and healing realm.
Explains Betts, “This series was a powerful phenomenological renewal experience. Each color is brought to the canvas with paint flowing like tidal moonpools, drips breathing life into puddles that tell secrets to brooks and lead into rivers that continue to fairy waterfalls, which flow to the ocean.
Rush recalls, “Even as a young girl, forests were my refuge, my solace, and extremely magical. Trees were not trees; they were characters on a stage, where I would look for forms that interacted and made visuals that felt like the dramas in my head.”
Rush’s source material is her photographic journey through nature taken during a residency in Newfoundland. She starts each painting with spray paint and acrylic, adding markers and later oil paint. Exploring the unique properties of each medium is an essential part of her technique, as is rotating the canvas to paint from two different directions. Rush builds on processes and colors that emerged in her work during the pandemic.
Betts is heavily influenced by abstract expressionism, anime, and colors from the 80s. He admits to being drawn to Madonna’s leopard pattern fashion era and cyberpunk future retro aesthetic. His approach incorporates gestures and organic forms, working in layers while exploring tensions between recognizable forms and abstraction.
Situations of Liminality and Transformation is an energetic painting dialogue, as much about the tensions between abstraction and representation as it is a reflection on the restorative power of the natural world.
Click HERE for more information on gallery hours and private appointments.
Situations of Liminality and Transformation
Chase Gallery
September 15, 2023 to November 4, 2023
Situations of Liminality and Transformation is a new exhibition by Chicago artist Sheri Rush and Canadian artist Jared Betts comprised of large-scale paintings on the threshold of abstraction and representation.
Rush and Betts were brought together through their shared reverence for the gift of nature, process-based painting, and the emotive power of color. Their synergies sparked the idea to co-create this bewitched portal to another world. They encourage the viewer to leave reality behind and immerse themselves in a colorful enchanted forest fantasy.
As symbolized in folklore, mythology, and contemporary fantasy worlds, woodlands can be places of darkness and danger or peaceful refuges of solace. After years of political turmoil and isolation, this exhibition offers an escape into a reflective, happy, and healing realm.
Explains Betts, "This series was a powerful phenomenological renewal experience. Each color is brought to the canvas with paint flowing like tidal moonpools, drips breathing life into puddles that tell secrets to brooks and lead into rivers that continue to fairy waterfalls, which flow to the ocean.
Rush recalls, "Even as a young girl, forests were my refuge, my solace, and extremely magical. Trees were not trees; they were characters on a stage, where I would look for forms that interacted and made visuals that felt like the dramas in my head."
Rush's source material is her photographic journey through nature taken during a residency in Newfoundland. She starts each painting with spray paint and acrylic, adding markers and later oil paint. Exploring the unique properties of each medium is an essential part of her technique, as is rotating the canvas to paint from two different directions. Rush builds on processes and colors that emerged in her work during the pandemic.
Betts is heavily influenced by abstract expressionism, anime, and colors from the 80s. He admits to being drawn to Madonna's leopard pattern fashion era and cyberpunk future retro aesthetic. His approach incorporates gestures and organic forms, working in layers while exploring tensions between recognizable forms and abstraction.
Situations of Liminality and Transformation is an energetic painting dialogue, as much about the tensions between abstraction and representation as it is a reflection on the restorative power of the natural world.
Click HERE for more information on gallery hours and private appointments.
Jared Betts earned a BFA from NSCAD University and has exhibited in over 200 exhibitions in Tokyo, Paris, New York, London, Iceland, Germany, Costa Rica, and across Canada.
Betts has received thirteen ArtsNB grants, a Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture, and Heritage grant, an Enterprise Greater Moncton business grant, and three New Brunswick Tourism, Culture, and Heritage grant. In addition, Jared has taken part in several artist residencies, from the land of fire and ice in Iceland and a castle in Ireland to spending half a year in the jungles of Costa Rica, resulting in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Costa Rica.
Jared Betts's paintings are included in numerous corporate and private collections in Paris, Toronto, Montreal, LA, China, Australia, and Iceland.
Sheri Rush (b. 1959, Fort Worth, Texas) is a Chicago-based painter whose work responds to the current world by considering the intersection of identity, landscape, and digital image. Rush's work is process-driven, emphasizing immersion and physical impact through scale and color while deconstructing a journey in nature.
Rush holds a BFA from Texas Christian University and an MFA from the University of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include the Rockford Art Museum, Freeport Art Museum, Ralph Arnold Gallery, The Art Center Highland Park, Arc Gallery, Hofheimer Gallery, Mu Gallery, James Baird Gallery in Newfoundland, solo shows at Hyde Park Art Center, Evanston Art Center, and Epiphany Center for the Arts. Recent awards include a fully funded residency to the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland and a grant from the Illinois Art Council Agency.
Jared Betts earned a BFA from NSCAD University and has exhibited in over 200 exhibitions in Tokyo, Paris, New York, London, Iceland, Germany, Costa Rica, and across Canada.
Betts has received thirteen ArtsNB grants, a Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture, and Heritage grant, an Enterprise Greater Moncton business grant, and three New Brunswick Tourism, Culture, and Heritage grant. In addition, Jared has taken part in several artist residencies, from the land of fire and ice in Iceland and a castle in Ireland to spending half a year in the jungles of Costa Rica, resulting in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Costa Rica.
Jared Betts's paintings are included in numerous corporate and private collections in Paris, Toronto, Montreal, LA, China, Australia, and Iceland.
Sheri Rush (b. 1959, Fort Worth, Texas) is a Chicago-based painter whose work responds to the current world by considering the intersection of identity, landscape, and digital image. Rush's work is process-driven, emphasizing immersion and physical impact through scale and color while deconstructing a journey in nature.
Rush holds a BFA from Texas Christian University and an MFA from the University of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include the Rockford Art Museum, Freeport Art Museum, Ralph Arnold Gallery, The Art Center Highland Park, Arc Gallery, Hofheimer Gallery, Mu Gallery, James Baird Gallery in Newfoundland, solo shows at Hyde Park Art Center, Evanston Art Center, and Epiphany Center for the Arts. Recent awards include a fully funded residency to the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland and a grant from the Illinois Art Council Agency.
