EMMA BEER b. 1987. Echuca, Victoria.
When making paintings or more specifically when I think about making these paintings. I think about two things; raw material and pure sensibility.
The most conspicuous things about my painting is the assertive tension between surface and space, the energised and ethereal colour relations, and the engaging duality and inversion of both substance and method.
I work relentlessly in opposition, to activate sensations (physical, mental, and emotional) that explore every infinite possibility. From happiness, sheer joy, and excitement, to pain, sorrow, and despair.
The primary focus and creative rationale of my work is to explore what painting can be. My work operates in the productive tension between two distinct histories of Modernist abstraction: hard-edged geometric abstraction, and expressionist gestural painting.
Formally and pictorially, I use blankness and the idea of the void as both literal and metaphoric engagements with painting’s relationship to technology. Yves Klein’s (1928-1962, French) attitude to minimalism and his references to the void are pictorial ideas I frequently return to: he wanted the subjects of his work to be images of their own presence and absence.
Through my paintings, I wonder what this could mean for painting as a medium and as a creative practice that coexists with the digital virtual (abstract) world?
When making paintings I strive to capture a balance between elegance and poise within the fluid, sometimes rough, and honest handlings of paint.
I attempt to test an idea: can my abstract painting stage or perform queer expression? And if so, how?
I want my practice to expose the parameters of my queer identity via abstract painting, and the potency of queer identity as a lens for making and viewing abstract paintings.
I aim to question the influence and role/s of gender and queerness when engaging in an abstract painting practice.
The body is a form of, or tool for expression, as is painting and writing. What is the value of gender and sexuality in abstract painting? I wonder if the artist’s relationship to gender and bodies influences the way work is made or the way work is viewed?
I identify as a queer female painter who can be placed somewhere between colour field painters and abstract minimalism.
I worked collaboratively with Nigel Lendon, we operated under the title, BEER + LENDON. This working relationship was a six-year partnership, the work itself occupies the space between contemporary painting and sculpture. Projects include; THE MASS – curated by Virginia Rigney at Canberra Museum and Gallery, UNFINISHED BUSINESS –curated by Alexander Boynes at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, PAINT + OBJECT, curated by Andrew Leslie at Annandale Galleries in Sydney and BEER + LENDON SNO 141 at Sydney Non-Objective.
I acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live and work, and pay my respects to Elders past and present.