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Ashley Ward
Halloween 2011

Moncton City Hall Gallery Opening

OPENING: 6:00PM-9:00PM Friday, October 21, 2011

EXHIBITION: October 11th - November 3rd, 2011


MONCTON GALLERY.
Moncton City Hall
655 Main Street
1st floor off the main lobby
Moncton New Brunswick, Canada.
Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM


web. www.jaredbetts.com

timestranscript.com - Emerging artists shine in exhibits

Meanwhile, across Main Street at the Moncton Gallery in city hall, Jared Betts, back from a month-long artist's residency in Costa Rica, is preparing for today's vernissage for a collection of mixed media and acrylic paintings inspired by the lush and vibrant colours of Central America. He's also just organized the studio on the third floor of the Aberdeen Cultural Centre which he's subletting from Yvon Gallant and George Blanchette for a year. He has been accepted as artist in residence at the Dieppe Arts and Culture Centre for four months and is preparing for an exhibition in the Irving Lobby of the Capitol Theatre early in 2012 as well as for a joint exhibition with Paul Edouard Bourque at the Ingrid Mueller Gallery in Fredericton.

And if working in two studios, up to 10 hours every day, is not enough to keep this 2010 NSCAD graduate busy, he'll be heading back to Costa Rica for four months next September, where he will exhibit the results of a second and longer residency at the National Gallery in San Jose.

In his artist statement, Jared describes his work, which explodes with colour, as being "somewhere between fiction and reality, (a place where) my thoughts and dreams are brought to life as I create surreal worlds that defy law and reason."

Firm in his belief that the visual images, from a variety of sources - childhood, nature, fantasy, fashion and pop culture - speak for themselves, he leaves them untitled. "I try not to put words with something so visual," he says, "I like leaving them untitled so the viewer doesn't have pre-conceived ideas."

Jared began the work in this series by adding water to acrylic paint and allowing it to drip down the canvas randomly, before applying horizontal saturated colour fields, mathematically arranged, and then creating explosions of energy, with colours laid on gesturally, using markers, acrylic or neon paints.

"This is the first time I've worked with neon," he says. "They're fun to work with and add a hyperfusion of colour."

While these paintings don't have words attached to them I'm thinking they couldn't have been created in a soundless vacuum, as they pulsate with energy vibrations. So I asked Jared one of my favourite questions - what music do you listen to? His answer was no surprise.

"Sometimes acoustic and sometimes electro - drums and bass," he says. "I like hip-hop and trip-hop which is all instrumental and house music. I guess you could say I'm all over the map and I like to change it up a lot."

The vernissage for Jared Betts' exhibition at Moncton City Hall takes place today from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibit will remain in place until Nov. 3. Check out his website at www.jaredbetts.com

By Margaret Patricia Eaton
Times & Transcript Staff

GUESS WHO? 2011 Art Auction Event

OPENING: 7:30PM Saturday, October 1, 2011

Sunbury Shores Gallery
St. Andrews, NB, Canada