BELLA FOSTER

Foster is known for her intimate paintings of interiors, objects and people rendered primarily in watercolour and gouache. Her works create a moment of ethereal reflection on the artist’s life and surroundings. She collects images from books and magazines,as well as draws from the places she inhabits and the everyday things around her, to create intimately scaled gestural interiors and still life paintings. Elements from historical paintings are grouped with depictions of the common studio items around her, and a surreal narrative imbued with symbolism emerges. A brush stroke from a colour field painting is emulated and transformed into a lamp, a tablecloth becomes a surreal oceanic landscape, and a rock becomes a confused figure on a table. She returns to certain themes and objects frequently. Pencils from her studio, and even her tape dispenser, become heroes in the painted world.********

She Foster consistently draws from a variety of images of the female body including; Paleolithic fertility figurines, Manet’s Olympia, Henry Moore’s sculptures, and Picasso’s many images of women. The female figure in art is both an objectified image as well as an archetypal symbol of receptivity and creative power. Taking fragments and pieces from these images of the female body is a way of embodying the images herself.

Her solo exhibitions include ones at The Pit, GlendaleLos Angeles and Palm Springs, California, USA (2018, 2020, 2022, 2024),CANADA, New York, USA (2017);, South Willard, Los Angeles, USA (2015);, and Art Since the Summer of 69, New York, USA (2010). She also had, and a duo exhibition with Elwyn Palmerton, Southfirst, Brooklyn, USA (2008). Foster’s group exhibitions include shows at The Pit, Los Angeles and Palm Springs, USA (2024); Palo Santo, Ratio 3, San Francisco, California, USA (2018); Fort Greene, Venus Over Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA (2016); Material, Salon 94, New York, USA (2012); Greater Brooklyn, CRG Gallery, New York, USA (2005); and Champion Fine Art, Los Angeles, USA (2004). Foster has also been featured at in the David Zwirner online exhibition __”Platform: Los Angeles” (2020).