Marinaro Gallery is pleased to present Make Hay, Bella Foster’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.
In these nine new paintings, the artist renders interior scenes and landscapes in lush hues, continuing her exploration of the ephemerality of nature and human existence. The interiors are those of Foster’s friends, tenderly depicted by the artist as an act of connection in distanced times. Coffee mugs, flowers, and fruits act as a simulacrum for the person who owns and arranges them, providing a greater insight into that person’s inner psychological landscape.
Similarly, Foster’s shelf paintings turn her material focus inward— a personal collection of objects that the artist has an affinity towards. Displayed are vessels adorned with various imagery and symbols, each one a container for a private mythology and a body- aware femininity.
The landscape paintings are an extension of the artist’s ongoing concern with our ever- changing climate and earth. Foster’s color choices in these works imbue them with a thematic temporality, specifically the use of pink. She considers this hue to be a “threshold” color as it relates to sunlight— a visual marker at the dawn of a new day or a signal at dusk for the impending night time. These spans of time are ultimately ephemeral by nature, but also provide a sacred space for new beginnings.
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Bella Foster was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1975 and lives in Grass Valley, CA. She received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY in 1997. One person exhibitions of her work have been presented at The Pit, Glendale, CA (2018, 2020), Canada, New York, NY (2017), South Willard, Los Angeles, CA (2015), and Art Since the Summer of 69, New York, NY (2010), and a two-person exhibition with Elwyn Palmerton was presented at Southfirst, Brooklyn, NY in 2008. Foster’s work has been featured in thematic exhibitions such as Palo Santo, Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA (2018); Fort Greene, Venus Over Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (2016); Material, Salon 94, New York, NY (2012); Greater Brooklyn, CRG Gallery, New York, NY (2005); and Where are we going? Where do we come from? And where are we going?, Champion Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA (2004).