Farbe: Abstractions on the Uncertainty of Living in a Pandemic

The impulse of creation is central to Beeber’s work, the crux of her artistic process, with each piece a testament to its unique circumstance of creation. A snapshot of a fleeting mood Beeber’s abstractions crystalize the atmosphere and emotional modality of discrete frames of time within the bounds of a vigorously expressive and dynamic practice.

Immersed in this creative momentum, the works in Farbe are highly energetic, exuding the vitality and immediacy of the present. Kaleidoscopic layers of varying marks form a quivering harmony, as if vibrating with a hidden kinetic force. Beeber’s undulating surfaces evoke the momentary gestures and instincts of her process, encompassing both her self-described “kitchen sink” approach to form and color as well as the reflective, meditative turn of her repetitive marks.

In Points Leading to La Sosta, the infinitesimal flux of distance between marks composing the piece’s central triangles lends a sense of frenzied euphoria, a moment of prophetic revelation. Here, in this flickering mirage, Beeber’s staccato patterns gain urgency and evoke the elemental universality of cave paintings and other primal displays of expression.

The textile-like appearance of these meticulously painted stitch patterns transforms the visual identity of the work, disrupting the linear reading of them as representational objects and instead projecting a sense of an organic, unified whole. In Bookends, a viscous stream of paint appears to ooze from the stitch-motif background, its liquid form and marbled hues imparting a mysterious dimensionality that adds further intrigue to the already psychologically primed composition.

As if turned inward in contemplation, Beeber’s work resists immediate comprehension, obliging the viewer to interpret and search for shrouded meaning behind her heavily layered surfaces. Many of the works in Farbe present a puzzling nature, heightened by an elusive relationship to their titles; oblique and ubiquitous, an out of place obtuse angle appears on the left side of Left Hand Stitch, while Gravity’s Rainbow pours a rainbow that gravity has rendered a puddle. This game-like interplay of language and abstraction animates Farbe, lending a self-awareness to Beeber’s painted strokes and marks.

Paige Beeber (b.1993) received her BFA from Alfred University in 2015. Soon after graduation she relocated to New York City where her work has garnered her recognition through solo exhibitions at Sweet Lorraine Gallery in 2018, Arts+Leisure in 2020, and a forthcoming exhibition at Freight+Volume in 2021. Beeber’s paintings have also been shown nationally and internationally in group exhibitions such as: Velvet Ropes, Soulland, Coppenhagen in 2019, SRISA Gallery, Florence, Italy in 2014, and the Walt Whitman Museum in 2011. Beeber has participated in the 2019 and 2020 DNA Residency as well as the Vermont Studio Center Residency where she received the VSC Merit Grant in 2016 and 2019.