HOME / 2011 Art X Detroit / Kristin Beaver

Kristin Beaver

 

Title: Hamtramck Circus

Medium: Unknown

Year Created: 2011

Kristin Beaver’s paintings in Hamtramck Circus are in loving memory of Jim Shaw, who passed away on December 5, 2010. They are a tribute to her friendship with him and his wife, Sandy Kramer, and are based on photographs Beaver took last August—windows into their Hamtramck summer. Jim often rode his motorcycle to chemotherapy, despite offers to take him to the hospital. He always said, Nope – I feel like I’m kicking the cancer’s ass a little more each time I ride the bike…. Beaver’s work could be considered a documentation of her life, using friends, acquaintances, and herself as subjects. In preparation for painting she takes hundreds of photographs, either from staged performances or candid situations. Beaver focuses on unique beauty—one moment someone looks stunning, and in the next vulnerable and awkward.

An expression can be loaded, seeming euphoric, complacent, orgasmic, hysterical, and agonized all at once. While viewers might not know the subject personally, they can empathize or fantasize with the presented human image. Beaver has been interested in the investigation of pairs within one painting—people she considers “sidekicks”— but singular gazes and interactions between paintings are also a focus. Blurring lines between the present and the past through allusions to fashion photography and album cover art remains a source of exploration, while the history of painting coincides with her focus on sensuality, sincerity vs. parody, formalism, and color. Beaver continues to paint at a monumental scale in order to manipulate space and create an intense emotional atmosphere.

www.kristinbeaver.com