Betty kaser
Space: A Dialogue Between Landscape and Architecture

JUNE 20 TO 30, 2018
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 21, 6 - 8 PM

The Red Head Gallery is pleased to present our summer rental exhibition Space: A Dialogue Between Landscape and Architecture,  by artist, Betty Kaser. 

I love big open spaces.

I love straight lines.

I love the depth and the softness of black gesso.

I love the organic form of nature with its curves and undulations.

For a long time my interest has been in drawing space on the page. Now I am making a transition from two dimensions to three.  An essential part of this is redefining space.  Space still gets to me every time.

To move into three dimensions I needed to find a form.  This began as a carefully designed triangular shelf, but it soon became more interesting as it began to lose its “shelfness”.   Playing with the shelves, for example placing one shelf upside down upon another or hanging the shelf vertically rather than horizontally was a revelation.  Combining objects like rocks and other found materials with the disordered shelves further altered arrangements.  New forms were created; new meanings emerged.  The shelf had transformed into a sculpture. 

I grew up in the immense space of the Canadian prairies.  I live now in the “disordered shelves” of a big city.  At the core is a dialogue between landscape and architecture -   a meditation -  a meditation on the edge between space and form, image and object, representation and abstraction, form and formlessness.

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Betty would like to thank members of the group of fellow artists who meet regularly at her studio to share work and ideas - Cathy Jones, Phyllis Gordon, Lynn Campbell, Susan Gaby Trotz, Jo Anne Maikawa, Nancy Kitagawa.  She also is very appreciative of the teacher and artist, Marla Hlady, who has given attention to her work over a number of years making astute comments and asking pointed questions. 

BIO

Betty Kaser’s art practice is in contemporary drawing and sculpture.  Betty received her Masters Degree in Environmental Studies at York University in 1972.  Her pursuit of art paralleled her work in urban planning, resulting in a cross-fertilization between the two endeavours.  In the early 80’s she began converting older two storey factories in downtown Toronto into condominiums for artists, providing permanent studio space together with separate living space. This practical engagement with the use of space is also seen in the pursuit of the spatial in her art. 

Betty began as a painter, exhibiting early on in Yorkville’s Praxis Gallery, and moving on to a solo exhibition of painting in three dimensions at York University’s Glendon Gallery.  She followed with active participation in juried and group exhibitions across Ontario and Quebec as well as mounting solo shows at Toronto’s Engine Gallery, Brayham Contemporary Gallery and the Black Cat Gallery.  For more than a decade now she has been focused solely on her art, allowing for a deepened engagement with the work - an expanded conversation with space and the challenges of translating the interior world into significant form.