ART CITIES:London-Beth Letain

Coming from a background in science, Beth Letain’s approach to painting is driven by an ‘imperative. The artist earned a BA from McGill University-Montreal in 1999, a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design-Halifax, in 2005; and an MFA in painting from SUNY Purchase-New York, in 2008. She has exhibited recently in Montreal, Brooklyn, Boston and Berlin. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Pace Gallery Archive

New paintings on canvas are on presentation at “Signal Hill” Beth Letain’s forth solo exhibition and her first at Pace Gallery. The title “Signal Hill” references a strategic location in Canada, a hill which overlooks the city of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, There on 12/12/1901, the first transatlantic wireless transmission was received here by Guglielmo Marconi, a transmission in Morse code, originated from his Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall, UK. As the artist says “I like the words and the idea of an un-grandiose sounding hill where one goes to send or receive signals. For me there are some nice parallels to the act of painting or looking”. Letain is a painter whose palette engages with the history of color and abstraction. She develops a minimalist language in the legacy of great artists and Bauhaus theories of color. Her vivid compositions feature dissonant yet harmonious lines and geometric structures that explore themes of logic, system and shape. “My interest lies in the optic connotations resulting from radical association of colours and forms. I’m fascinated by what you can achieve with extremely limited resources” she explains. With their minimal shapes, the paintings testify to Letain’s careful selection of forms from a substantial collection of preparatory drawings. Having a background in science, the artist’s approach to painting is similar to experimenting in the laboratory, it stems from the necessity to leap into the unknown. She prepares her surfaces with layers of homemade gesso before applying brightly saturated pigments in asymmetrical graphic grids that reach the edges of our sightlines. Striking hues of matte blue, orange and red parallel rather than merge, to create powerful infinity bands that separate the work into various elements, opening the space to plural possibilities. Letain’s process is performative; each band of colour is created in a limited set of gestures before the drying process begins.

Info: Pace Gallery, 6 Burlington Gardens, London, Duration: 28/6-4/8/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.pacegallery.com