Arabella Campbell
The emerging contemporary painter Arabella Campbell takes an innovative
approach to painting, installation and photography. She has called into
question the role of the medium in painting and is critically engaged
with the theory surrounding this practice.
Her work explores abstraction in a contemporary mode. Monochromatic abstractions are precisely produced, layering up to 60 or 70 coats, using tiny brush strokes. These are reproductions of gallery walls where her work was previously hung. The analogy of painting as photography is addressed in her work, as is the work's dialogue with it's setting.
Therefore, apparently monochromatic abstractions could also be interpreted as obscurely figurative- a perfect replication of a gallery wall, using minute brush strokes that mirror the surface of the paint.
Looking at these works, one is challenged to look beyond the work's immediate representation and towards an intellectual drive or concept that formulates it.
Pushing limits of perception Arabella's interest is "in the intersection of the fake and the real, and how we give objects meaning according to these two words. Using the idea of faux finishes, I explore banal imagery, torn from its environment and juxtaposed with colour."
Arabella Campbell conceptually redefines the focal point of a painting. The process of deconstruction of accepted modes of perception includes the way we look at paintings. Shunning the traditional two dimensional perspective, Campbell considers the 3D shape of the canvas, citing the back and structure as important to the viewer's awareness of the work.
This view is explored throughout her body of work, including by painting the inner skeleton of the canvas upon it's surface, and using the sides as well as the front to paint on.
An emerging contemporary painter, Arabella had her first solo show at her representative gallery, in 2007 at the Catriona Jeffries Gallery in Canada. She has also won two awards for painting.
To download a full CV, please visit http://www.catrionajeffries.com.
Copyright Maria Tidball-Binz, Lodeveans Collection
Education
2000 - 2002 Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design,
Vancouver, British Columbia
1998 - 1999 San Francisco Art Institute,
San Francisco, California
1992 - 1996 University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, British Columbia
Solo Exhibitions
2008 'Artspeak', window installation, Taken from there to "here to here it
Group Exhibitions
2008 'THIS IS NOT A VOID', Galeria Luisa Strina,curated by Jens Hoffmann,
2008 'Museum as Medium', Museo de Art Contemporanea de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
2008 'Everything Should Be As Simple As Possible But Not Simpler', The
2008 'Past as Present', York Art Gallery, York, England
2007 'The Ninth Annual RBC Painting Competition', Emily Carr Institute,
Shown by
Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
Her work explores abstraction in a contemporary mode. Monochromatic abstractions are precisely produced, layering up to 60 or 70 coats, using tiny brush strokes. These are reproductions of gallery walls where her work was previously hung. The analogy of painting as photography is addressed in her work, as is the work's dialogue with it's setting.
Therefore, apparently monochromatic abstractions could also be interpreted as obscurely figurative- a perfect replication of a gallery wall, using minute brush strokes that mirror the surface of the paint.
Looking at these works, one is challenged to look beyond the work's immediate representation and towards an intellectual drive or concept that formulates it.
Pushing limits of perception Arabella's interest is "in the intersection of the fake and the real, and how we give objects meaning according to these two words. Using the idea of faux finishes, I explore banal imagery, torn from its environment and juxtaposed with colour."
Arabella Campbell conceptually redefines the focal point of a painting. The process of deconstruction of accepted modes of perception includes the way we look at paintings. Shunning the traditional two dimensional perspective, Campbell considers the 3D shape of the canvas, citing the back and structure as important to the viewer's awareness of the work.
This view is explored throughout her body of work, including by painting the inner skeleton of the canvas upon it's surface, and using the sides as well as the front to paint on.
An emerging contemporary painter, Arabella had her first solo show at her representative gallery, in 2007 at the Catriona Jeffries Gallery in Canada. She has also won two awards for painting.
To download a full CV, please visit http://www.catrionajeffries.com.
Copyright Maria Tidball-Binz, Lodeveans Collection
Education
2000 - 2002 Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design,
Vancouver, British Columbia
1998 - 1999 San Francisco Art Institute,
San Francisco, California
1992 - 1996 University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, British Columbia
Solo Exhibitions
2008 'Artspeak', window installation, Taken from there to "here to here it
came from and taken to a place and used in such a manner that it can
only remain as a representation of what it was where it came from",
Vancouver, British Columbia
2007 'Solo show', Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver, British ColumbiaGroup Exhibitions
2008 'THIS IS NOT A VOID', Galeria Luisa Strina,curated by Jens Hoffmann,
São Paulo, Brazil
2008 'Museum as Medium', Koldo Mitxelena, San Sebastian, Spain2008 'Museum as Medium', Museo de Art Contemporanea de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
2008 'Everything Should Be As Simple As Possible But Not Simpler', The
Western Front, curated by Juan Gaitán, Vancouver, British Columbia
2008 'Field Work', The Apartment, Vancouver, British Columbia2008 'Past as Present', York Art Gallery, York, England
2007 'The Ninth Annual RBC Painting Competition', Emily Carr Institute,
Vancouver, British Columbia
Shown by
Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver
