two-person art exhibit on display at Nahcotta

It was accidental at first, the juxtaposition of artwork by Beth Pearson and Lillianna Pereira.

The two artists were among the many who had a few works featured in the Enormous Tiny Art Show II at Nahcotta last year and, because the pieces happened to be arranged alphabetically, they were right next to each other.

Deb Thompson, owner of the art gallery on Congress Street in Portsmouth, said both were well received and people wanted to see more.

“I thought they had a lot more to say, both of them, visually,” she said.

A two-person art exhibition featuring Pearson and Pereira is on display at Nahcotta until Sunday, April 6. The artists have a different way of expressing themselves, but Thompson says they share a similar energy.

Pearson’s oil paintings are an abstract, visual likeness of poetry. Many are on wood panels and are heavy with the texture of brush strokes. Sketchy lines and shapes are carved into the paint to reveal other layers.

In her artist’s statement, Pearson describes the process as intuitive. The paintings have a history, changing over time before their reason for existing is known.

“It’s like writing a story without knowing the plot,” she said.

She is in fact a writer, as well as a painter, with a degree in fine art and writing from Skidmore College. Her work is in collections at the college, as well as at the University of Vermont and the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park. She lives in Burlington, Vt. The titles of her paintings give way to interpretation.

Most of Pearson’s paintings currently on display are small, but a larger one hangs near the center of the display. In this one, “Then It Sank to a Miraculous Depth,” it’s possible to see sunlight and the sea and the movement of a shipwreck that has succumbed to fate.

Others, like “Spring Snow,” a bright and light blue nature scene, don’t take imagination to enjoy.

Pereira prefers to create collages. She perfectly fits together severed and sometimes tattered pieces of print materials, then brings them to life like Frankenstein. She obsessively cuts and rips pieces from magazines and newspapers, and organizes them into cubbies with labels like “women’s arms.” She sometimes fills out the details with pencil or thread and sets the backdrop with a page from a book or graphing paper.

One of Pereira’s collages, called “Hades,” shows a man who appears to be waiting in a business suit, looking down with his arms crossed. He’s inside a wooden building, while the real woods are just outside the door. It could be representative of a modern hell, and it would be depressing if it wasn’t so easy on the eyes. 

Pereira is a graphic designer by profession and enjoys making collages by hand, as opposed to computer generated images. Pereira, who holds a bachelor of fine arts from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, has been exhibiting in New England since 2000. She lives in North Hampton, Mass.

While their artwork is different, Pereira said she and Pearson are similar in that they are “both trying to tell a story.”
Pereira said her verbal and written communication skills are less than adequate and she finds herself stumbling over words. She said collage is her way making sense.

“I have a lot to say or a lot of ideas, and I need a way to talk about them,” she said.

Pereira takes images out of context and rearranges them in a way that’s personal to her, but still has universal appeal. Universal qualities are portrayed through mythology and archetypes, which, she said, convey a broader truth. Some of her works are named after Hermes, the Minotaur and Rapunzel.  

“I’m telling a story, but it’s a lot of people’s story,” she said.

Pereira said she appreciates it when people gather meaning from her work, but that’s not why she makes it. “I make it because I need to,” she said.

The creating always comes first anyway, she added, and the meaning comes to her after. Serendipity and the unconscious guide the composition, she said.

Thompson said learning about the process and meaning behind art enhances it, but the aesthetic comes first.
“The art has to stand alone without any back story,” she said. And it does. 

The work of Beth Pearson and Lillianna Pereira will be on display at Nahcotta, 110 Congress St., Portsmouth, 603-433-1705, through Sunday, April 6.