Beth Letain

Introduction

"MY ABILITY TO WORK WITH FORM AND COLOR IS THE SAME AS ANYONE. I STEER CLEAR OF HOOKING MY WORK ONTO ANY PERSONAL NARRATIVE BUT I AM ALSO NEVER DYING TO KNOW THE PARTICULARS OF WHO MADE A THING, IF I LIKE THE THING."

– ANA FINEL HONIGMAN, ARTNEWS, 2019

Beth Letain (b. 1979 in Edmonton, CA) is a former biologist who shifted her focus to painting 10 years ago. Since then, she has worked within an intentionally limited vocabulary of forms which reference circuitry, portals, and mitosis – all points of transfer, duplication and connection. While relentlessly pursuing the minimal forms which preoccupy her, Letain embraces mistakes and uncertainty in her work. The artist laboriously applies gesso, layer by layer and sands it down until it becomes a rich, velvety surface. This deliberately long process is contrasted by the fast, almost gestural execution of the formal shapes in oil paint.

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Works