Beti Bricelj is a painter of the middle generation, who has gained international recognition in the last decade, but has only recently become established on the Slovenian art scene. She works in the field of geometric abstraction, where artworks are based on a mathematical foundation, have no representational content and exist as independent visual objects. The starting point for her works has always been the grid structure, from which she builds various abstract compositions by giving rhythm to shapes, colours and light. This approach allows her to steer her research in the field of geometric abstraction in different directions, emphasising individual aspects of this specific genre of painting.

In the first period of her practice, the artist predominantly focused on exploring the possibilities offered by the manipulation of the grid structure and the modelling of colour. In the construction of her paintings, she concentrated on the details of intertwining grids and toning of harmonious colours, which she combined into different compositional concepts – linear, diagonal or central. Accordingly, her first period is characterised by visually rich compositions that are saturated in form and colour and additionally enlivened by optical effects such as flickering, movement or undulation. From around 2015, her explorations gradually take a turn in the opposite direction. Instead of a fragmented intertwining grid, the chosen detail comes to the fore; instead of toning, a contrast of pure colours; instead of a dynamic concept, a rigid composition based on the square or rectangle; and instead of kinetic effects, an illusion of space. In line with this new approach, small-format paintings are produced, linked through colour and formal elements to make up expansive systems, which the artist freely arranges and assembles in the gallery space. With countless possible combinations, she creates an ever-new – infinite – composition each time, from which a different spatial illusion can (always) emerge. This dynamic process is often frozen in her large-format paintings, where the delineated pictorial field creates the illusion of individual colour planes simultaneously advancing and receding. She intensifies the perception of space to perfection in her FlatCube series, creating the illusion of a 3D object on a 2D surface in each piece.

In this exhibition, the artist presents selected works from her most recent creative period, complemented by a new composition of circles, an extremely rare form in her oeuvre. In the first gallery space, she presents works in a black-and-white combination, where she uses only drawing to create clear, rigid but also lyrical compositions. In the second space, the interplay of lines and shapes is enlivened by colour. A composition of 40 small blue squares is complemented by larger paintings in predominantly yellow and red colours, where the artist in various ways plays with the perception of space within a geometrically conceived whole. In the third space, 48 blue circles, arranged in an apparently random composition, enter into a game of dynamic progression, where the rigidity of the geometric concept loosens and relaxes. Within the context of the entire exhibition, this gesture acts as an intrusion of chaos, freedom and playfulness into a solid and enclosed structure, a symbolic order – which, after all, marks the beginning of any artistic creation.

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Beti Bricelj (1974) graduated from Arthouse – College of Visual Arts in Ljubljana in 2000. During her studies, she researched Aboriginal culture under the auspices of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs of the Australian Government in Adelaide (1998/99). In 2007 she conceived the mural The Path of the Sun at the Epicentre B2 building in Postojna. She has presented her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. Recent solo exhibitions include Squarerism, Galerie r8m, Cologne (2023), Abweichen von der Norm, ZS Galerie, Vienna (2023) and Geodialogues, Nova Gorica City Art Gallery (2024), and the group exhibitions 195th RSA Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (2021), Geometry Now, Vasarely Museum, Budapest (2024) and Extended Vision, Cukrarna, Ljubljana (2024). She has received several awards and prizes for her artwork. She lives and works in Postojna.
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