Rachel Bess
{{Short description|American artist}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Rachel Bess
| image = Rachel Bess.jpg
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| caption = Bess in 2005
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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1979}}
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| nationality = American
| education = Arizona State University
| field = Painting
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Rachel Bess (born {{Circa}} 1979){{cite news|author=Ashlea Deahl |title=Studio Visit: Disturbed Beauty |url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2004-08-19/culture/studio-visit-disturbed-beauty/ |work=Phoenix New Times |date=August 19, 2004 |access-date=2014-01-13 }} is an American painter and writer from Phoenix, Arizona.
Biography
Bess got her BFA degree in painting from the Honors College at Arizona State University in 2001. She taught life drawing and painting at New School for the Arts and Academics in Tempe, Arizona from 2002 to 2007 before leaving academia to paint full-time.{{cite web|last=Belden|first=Thomas|title=ASU grad Rachel Bess brings her eclectic artwork to Central's Visual Arts Gallery|url=http://www.centralaz.edu/Home/About_Central/News_Front/2008/News_IndexArchive_-_May_2008/Rachel_Bess_Art_Show.htm|publisher=Central Arizona College|access-date=6 February 2014}}
Bess is known for her highly realistic, sometimes surrealistic, baroque-style oil paintings on panel. Her work has drawn comparisons to that of the Dutch Masters,{{Cite news|url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/divining-nature-puts-rachel-bess-interests-in-the-darker-side-of-life-on-display-at-perihelion-arts-6426763|title="Divining Nature" Puts Rachel Bess' Interests in the Darker Side of Life on Display at Perihelion Arts|last=Holden|first=Wynter|date=May 7, 2009|work=Phoenix New Times}} as well as to certain subgenres of the lowbrow art movement.
In 2014 she was awarded the Arlene and Morton Scult Contemporary Forum Artist Award (the Contemporary Forum is a support organization of the Phoenix Art Museum).{{cite news|title=Studio Visit: Disturbed Beauty |url=http://www.scottsdaleindependent.com/entertainment/arizona-artists-work-to-be-on-display-at-phoenix-art-museum/ |work=Scottsdale Independent |date=April 8, 2015 |place=Scottsdale, Arizona|access-date=2017-01-31 }}
Bess prepared a series of paintings to exhibit at Art Miami{{Broken anchor|date=2025-06-20|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=Art Basel#Miami Beach, Florida|reason= The anchor (Miami Beach, Florida) has been deleted.|diff_id=1226435033}} 2016. They consisted of paintings of rotting fruit, a subject she'd been working on for several years, which are a comment on the human body, aging, and death.{{cite news|author=Mikey Estes |title=Rachel Bess on Visceral Beauty and How Marina Abramovic's Art Is Like MMA |url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/rachel-bess-on-visceral-beauty-and-how-marina-abramovics-art-is-like-mma-7478461 |work=Phoenix New Times |date=July 15, 2015 |access-date=2017-01-31 }} In December 2016 she was awarded a $5000 grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, which she intended to use to support four months of research into underpainting.{{cite news|author=Lynn Trimble |title=These 17 Artists Won Grants from Arizona Commission on the Arts |url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/these-17-artists-won-grants-from-arizona-commission-on-the-arts-8924324 |work=Phoenix New Times |date=December 22, 2016 |access-date=2017-01-31 }}
Bess helped to organize the Phoenix branch of Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School, and writes and illustrates a comic book titled Fighting Death Through Reanimation.
Bess was represented by Perihelion Arts in downtown Phoenix,{{Cite news|url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/painter-rachel-bess-moves-from-perihelion-arts-to-lisa-sette-gallery-6562009|title=Painter Rachel Bess Moves from Perihelion Arts to Lisa Sette Gallery|last=D'Andrea|first=Niki|date=July 20, 2011|work=Phoenix New Times|access-date=2017-03-31}} prior to representation by the Lisa Sette Gallery in Phoenix.{{Cite web|url=https://lisasettegallery.com/|title=Home|website=Lisa Sette Gallery}}
She is an expert in rearing urban chickens{{cite news|author=Charlie Jannetto |title=Phoenix residents can learn to raise urban chickens |url=http://archive.azcentral.com/ent/calendar/articles/2009/09/09/20090909phx-urbanchickens0909-CP.html |work=The Arizona Republic |date=September 9, 2009 |access-date=2017-01-31 }} and has published a handbook on the subject, Fowl Play.{{cite news|author=Lilia Menconi |title=Urban Chickens in Phoenix & Rachel Bess |url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/urban-chickens-in-phoenix-and-rachel-bess-6568947 |work=Phoenix New Times |date=July 26, 2010 |access-date=2017-01-31 }}
Notable exhibitions
Selected solo shows {{cite web|title=Bio|url=http://www.rachelbess.com/bio/|access-date=6 February 2014}}
2015. Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona{{Cite web|url=http://www.phxart.org/exhibition/rachelbess|title=Rachel Bess exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum}}
2014. Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona{{Cite web|url=http://lisasettegallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/newsletter-v16.pdf|title=Lisa Sette Gallery Guide}}
2012. Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
2011. Perihelion Arts, Phoenix, Arizona
2010
- Copro Gallery, Los Angeles, California
- Perihelion Arts, Phoenix, Arizona
- Rodger LaPelle Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2009.
- Copro Gallery, Los Angeles, California
- Perihelion Arts, Phoenix, Arizona
2008. Cattle Track Arts Compound, Scottsdale, Arizona
2007. Trinity Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. May.
2006. Modified Arts, Phoenix, Arizona. November–December.
2005. Casa Grande Museum of Art, Casa Grande, Arizona. January–February.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.rachelbess.com/ Official Site]
- [http://www.fightingdeath.com/ Fighting Death through Reanimation comic]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20081020013621/http://beinart.org/artists/rachel-bess/ Rachel Bess - Surreal Art Collective]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bess, Rachel}}
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:Painters from Phoenix, Arizona