Rosalux Gallery is pleased to present Wonder/Wander: Ashely Peifer, mixed media and In Deferred Grievance: Betsy Ruth Byers, painting.
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 9th, 7:00-9:00 pm
Exhibition Dates: March 2-31, 2019
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 12noon-4:00 pm
In Wonder/Wander, Ashely Peifer seeks to reclaim the deep playfulness of childhood amidst the anxiety of our fast-paced world. Her goal is to capture the fleeting and immaterial nature of personal memories and translate them into the material realm of pattern, color, and form which helps me hold onto them a little more tightly. Memories serve both the subject and material means by which she explores painting’s capacity to flicker from abstract to representational and back again, mirroring the way memories fluctuate from intangible to distinct when recalled. Peifer’s role as a mother has brightened my studio practice in unexpected ways. Her daughter reminds her how to be amazed by the commonplace, how to be whimsical and inventive, and how to find comfort and pleasure in repetition. The images in her work come from a catalogue of shapes with personal signifiers including flowers, jump ropes, forts, garden edging stones, rainbows, landscapes, and interior spaces. The shapes usually exist within her compositions in a flat, collaged space where they vary in scale and color to discover unexpected visual relationships. The classical gestures of painting and making by hand feel necessary and life-giving to examining this. Whether it’s using fiber paste or burlap to make the process and materials more difficult to work with, nearly destroying a piece as a means of finishing it, or considering diptychs from objects and paintings, her studio process embraces the surprises in its unfolding. Visit her website at ashelypeifer.com
Bright And Winsome, mixed media on panel, by Ashely Peifer
Ashely Peifer is an artist and textile designer living in Minneapolis. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including solo shows at Galleria Daniele Agostini in Lugano, Switzerland, Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Burnet Gallery also in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, the Urban Outfitters blog, and Maake Magazine, as well as numerous art blogs and digital magazines. She holds an MFA in Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and a BA in Visual Art from Taylor University in Indiana. Currently, she is an adjunct instructor at Bethel University.
Glow Worms, mixed media on panel, by Ashely Peifer 
In Deferred Grievance, Betsy Ruth Byers explores the symbiotic relationship between our bodies and the surrounding environment. The work births from potent encounters with the natural world, anchored in the relationship between perception, landscape, and cultural consciousness. She is drawn specifically to disappearing glaciers because they are sensitive indicators to climate change. Deferred Grievance is inspired by the co-dependent relationship between the Rhône Glacier and the community of Gletsch, Switzerland located at its terminus. The paintings in Deferred Grievance examine this community and its intimate relationship to the Rhône Glacier through both materiality and imagery. The subject matter contrasts singular still moments depicting ice with landscapes that contextualize the melt and recession of the glacier. Prioritizing the interaction of color, surface, and texture as integral to the outcome of my work, the progression of each painting draws on the characteristics of snow and ice in an attempt to translate the physical experiences of the cold and the emotional impact of the loss. The exhibition seeks to highlight the precarious nature of glaciers in our Anthropocene age by creating empathy between viewers and the natural world. Visit her website at betsyruthbyers.com
Ablation, oil on canvas, by Betsy Ruth Byers 
Betsy Ruth Byers is an artist and an Associate Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited at the National Galleries of Scotland, SCOPE International Art Fair, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, DeVos Art Museum, Hillstrom Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Intermedia Arts, Guilford Art Center, and The Soap Factory. Her work resides in several private, corporate and museum collections including the Weisman Museum of Art, Hillstrom Museum of Art, Target Corporation, Nordstrom Corporation, BMO Harris Bank, LPM Corporation, and Allina Health Center.
Terminus, oil on canvas, Betsy Ruth Byers
