Beatrice Modisett utilizes highly physical processes both in and out of the studio to explore geologic phenomenon, personal histories, erosion as a means of creation and the systems humans create in an attempt to navigate, control and contain landscapes. Modisett earned her BFA in Painting from Montserrat College of Art and her MFA in Painting in Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2016. She has had solo exhibitions at Eastern Connecticut State University (Willimantic, CT); HallSpace (Boston, MA); and Montserrat College of Art (Beverly, MA). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Queens Museum (Queens, NY); Page Bond Gallery (Richmond, VA); and Present Company (Brooklyn, NY) among others.

Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation NYC 2019 fall visual grant has been awarded to Beatrice to help with the installation of her 2020 exhibtion “Scorched Earth” at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, Lynchburg, VA, beginning January 31st - April 11th, 2020.

Scorched Earth presents Beatrice Modisett’s recent investigations into the visualization and layering of landscapes - referenced, imagined and remembered - in various states of formation, collapse and upheaval.

The large scale paintings in the exhibition are formed through the accrual and erosion of layers and layers of thinned oil paint. Various objects are placed under and on top of the canvas and the resulting hills and valleys direct, disrupt and imprint the paint’s flow and surface. Walls of paint on the canvas also direct the flow of material. These levees are drawing tools that serve as metaphor for the systems humans construct in an attempt to control, contain and navigate constantly shifting landscapes. Fiery reds burning beside cool grays and turbulent waves of rivulets recall the geologic phenomenon that shape terrain - eruptions, tsunamis and shifting tectonic plates among them - and the undulating and cracked surfaces exhibit the highly physical process of each painting’s creation.

Monumental charcoal drawings create immersive viewing experiences that reference cliffs, caves and bodies of water that the artist has moved through, void of the color that would indicate their state of being. Alongside mixed media floor sculptures the drawings and paintings  present the vibration and tension between the creative and destructive events that shape our landscape - both natural and human caused. A catalog will accompany the exhibition with essays by artist Baseera Khan and art historian Owen J. Duffy.