The Burnaby Art Gallery and the Art Gallery at Evergreen in Coquitlam co-presented the exhibition Ruth Beer: Seep | Swell, an exhibition in 2 parts. Taking place across the 2 galleries concurrently, this exhibition contemplated Beer’s artistic research on the entwined relationships between humankind and our industries.
For decades, Beer has used sculpture to explore the depictions, constructs and myths of landscape. Her dynamic practice revolves around an ecological examination of our rapidly transforming Pacific Northwest region. Beer’s early explorations of minimalist abstract and elemental forms have evolved into an interest in materials and their relationship to culture and society. In the artist’s hands, raw natural materials are shaped through the cultural and sociopolitical forces that harvest them. Through an array of materially seductive artworks—glistening copper weavings, tapestries, bronze and ceramic stones, woven photographs and prints on paper—Beer offers timely reflections on themes related to belonging, human-land relationships and the pressing climate crisis.
Ruth Beer, Seep | Swell was co-produced between the Art Gallery at Evergreen and the Burnaby Art Gallery, curated by Katherine Dennis and Jennifer Cane.
About the Artist
Ruth Beer is a Vancouver-based artist whose interdisciplinary artistic practice examines and envisions contested geographies and landscapes in transition. Her artworks, which include sculpture, video, photography and tapestry projects, have been exhibited internationally, most recently at the Rovaniemi Art Museum in Finland (2024). Beer’s recent research-creation projects, including Trading Routes: Grease Trails, Oil Pipelines and Shifting Ground: Mapping Energy, Geographies and Communities in the North (2019–25), are supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and BC Arts Council. Beer is Professor of Art in the Faculty of Art and Graduate Studies at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver.
