Artist Statement / Bio
Statement
It begins with eye contact. In creating my paintings, I see life emerge from the background. When it holds my gaze and won't let go, I am compelled to release the figure through painting it into existence. While researching reference images for the animals in my work, I simultaneously learn of their struggle to survive due to climate change, and so I choose to render their portrait making eye contact with the viewer. Additional imagined life forms are born from the background of the painting, yet remain silhouettes, revealing an absence or extinction or suggesting a life form that has yet to evolve. They become companions to the central figure and provide a sense of hope or possibility for the future.
Growing up in Southern California, my grandmother’s flowers were always in bloom. My mother nurtured her houseplants, some of which were decades old; they held emotional ties to loved ones both living and gone. Caring for the plants in and around our home connected us to the past and present. My own garden beds are life boxes where I nurture all that grows both as a result of my intentional planting as well as seedlings that spring spontaneously forth from the compost. I learn a great deal through observation.
In my studio, I make paintings inspired by the growth and evolution of life. The canvas is a cosmos and a birthing place for the germination of ideas. Small studies are painted when the garden is in bloom. They become references for the dormant, dreaming garden in winter, where imaginative, fantastical visions of the intersection of flora and fauna are painted. Here flowers sprout wings and insects grow roots, floating, flying, morphing. Air is fluid like water and the atmosphere evokes the undersea.
Webs in my work tie the individual elements together like a family. The act of weaving them ties me to my Nana’s spirit who taught me to knit when I was young. Each painting is a bursting microcosm rich with Interconnectedness, symbiosis, and interdependence.
We are connected to a universe much larger than our everyday experiences and through living we radiate potential energy. I am interested in celebrating that which makes us unique but more importantly connects us to one another.
Bio
Angela Beloian has over 25 years experience as a professional artist and teacher and in 2019 was honored as a Colorado Creative by Westword magazine. Since graduating with a BFA in Fine Arts from the University of California at Santa Barbara, she has:
exhibited her work in museums, galleries and art centers throughout the United States including the Fort Collins Museum of Art (Fort Collins, CO), Riverside Art Museum (Riverside, CA), Longmont Museum (Longmont, CO), Denver International Airport, Denver Theater District, Dairy Arts Center (Boulder, CO), Foothills Art Center (Golden, CO), Lawndale Art Center (Houston, TX), Art League (Houston, TX), Canyon Road Contemporary Art (Santa Fe, NM), Karin Sanders Fine Art (Sag Harbor, NY), and Womanmade Gallery (Chicago, IL)
completed multiple solo and group exhibits since 2008 with Walker Fine Art in Denver, Colorado
appeared on the cover of Studio Visit Magazine (2014) and been reviewed in numerous publications including Painted Sky: 106 Artists of the Rocky Mountain West by E. Ashley Rooney (2015), Art Ltd (2014) and Westword where she received a Best of Denver Award in 2014
been awarded grants from the Longmont Council for the Arts (2002), the Scientific Cultural Facilities District (1999) and Art in Public Places, Longmont, CO (2001)
headed the art program at September High School, an independent high school, including teaching all art classes; leading school-wide art trips to Denver, Chicago, Santa Fe and Patzcuaro, Mexico; organizing, designing and leading school-wide art installations; and creating and facilitating the Visiting Artist Program from 2008-2020
presented talks at the Center for Integrated Arts at the University of Northern Colorado; the University of Denver; the University of Houston, Downtown; the University of Colorado, Boulder; the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; Houston Public Radio and the “WB” Morning News television station in Denver, CO
been invited to attend the Painting’s Edge Artist Residency in Idyllwild, CA (2007) and the Creative Capital Artist Retreat in Houston, TX (2005)
served on the Teacher Advisory Committee for the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Visual Arts Committee for the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder
Co-created and facilitated the Boulder County Arts Leadership Forum (BCALF)
studied independently with artist advisor, Ellie Blankfort in Los Angeles from 2003-2005
