Betsy Ruth Byers

I paint to discover and imagine our intimate relationship with the environment in an abstract form. The work births from potent encounters with the natural world, anchored in the relationship between perception, memory, landscape and cultural consciousness. The progression of the work draws on sensual traces and visual structures of our surrounding environment for imagery and color. The characteristics of paint help to develop the spaces where surfaces meet. Responding to the corporeal activity of laying paint on canvas, I activate its abilities by scraping, expanding, mixing, and overlapping layers. Interweaving the psychological space and materiality of paint, I search for reciprocity between the boundaries of intimacy and immensity, self and other. Betsy R. Byers

Betsy Byers holds a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies with an emphasis in painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She received her B.A. from St. Olaf College and her k-12 Art Education Licensure from St. Catherine University. Byers is currently a Professor of Art and Art History at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. Betsy’s work has been shown both nationally and internationally. She has exhibited at the National Gallery of Scotland, Minnesota Museum of American Art, De Vos Art Museum, Hillstrom Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Intermedia Arts, Guilford Art Center, The Soap Factory, Burnet Gallery in the Le Méridien Chambers Hotel, Augsburg College, and University of Minnesota Morris. Byers has been was awarded two National Science Foundation Grants, a Kolman & Reeb Project Space Grant, a Mcknight Mid-Career Artist Grant, and Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants. She is represented by Kolman & Reeb Gallery and Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis. Byers abstract landscape paintings are rooted in the sensory experience of the natural world and seek to activate a visceral and tactile relationship with the viewer.