INTRODUCTION
For the occasion of the forthcoming 57th Venice Biennale, Outset Israel is promoting a site-specific solo exhibition by the artist Beverly Barkat, entitled Evocative Surfaces, at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani. The exhibition includes a cycle of the artist’s works in the medium of painting and drawing, alongside a series of large-scale painted PVC sheets produced especially for the site of the Museum.
Barkat’s painterly gesture is rooted in a profound and ongoing dialogue with art history. Her study and observation of the figurative and realistic tradition in Western art has resulted in an accumulating knowledge that she directly draws on in her artistic practice. While basing herself on the traditional genre divisions as have existed throughout centuries – landscape, still life, the human figure and the nude – Barkat shifts her subject matter into a subliminal world, imaginary spaces and resorts to abstraction. Fully employing the interplay of color, tonality, line, form and texture, she creates richly layered work in vigorous, dynamic compositions that seem to burst with energy while still touching on the lyrical and poetic.
The project Evocative Surfaces has been chosen for the unique location of Museo di Palazzo Grimani, an outstanding Venetian palace decorated in late Renaissance style. It features a unique architecture, exquisite stucco and original frescoes, marble wall decorations and an important collection of art and archeology. Deeply taken in with the palace and its internal furnishings, Barkat entertains a close and intimate dialogue with the site – effectively making her the exclusive artist exhibiting on the second floor of the Museum for the occasion of the 57th Venice Biennale.
INTRODUCTION
For the occasion of the forthcoming 57th Venice Biennale, Outset Israel is promoting a site-specific solo exhibition by the artist Beverly Barkat, entitled Evocative Surfaces, at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani. The exhibition includes a cycle of the artist’s works in the medium of painting and drawing, alongside a series of large-scale painted PVC sheets produced especially for the site of the Museum.
Barkat’s painterly gesture is rooted in a profound and ongoing dialogue with art history. Her study and observation of the figurative and realistic tradition in Western art has resulted in an accumulating knowledge that she directly draws on in her artistic practice. While basing herself on the traditional genre divisions as have existed throughout centuries – landscape, still life, the human figure and the nude – Barkat shifts her subject matter into a subliminal world, imaginary spaces and resorts to abstraction. Fully employing the interplay of color, tonality, line, form and texture, she creates richly layered work in vigorous, dynamic compositions that seem to burst with energy while still touching on the lyrical and poetic.
The project Evocative Surfaces has been chosen for the unique location of Museo di Palazzo Grimani, an outstanding Venetian palace decorated in late Renaissance style. It features a unique architecture, exquisite stucco and original frescoes, marble wall decorations and an important collection of art and archeology. Deeply taken in with the palace and its internal furnishings, Barkat entertains a close and intimate dialogue with the site – effectively making her the exclusive artist exhibiting on the second floor of the Museum for the occasion of the 57th Venice Biennale.