Words

I am serious about play. It is my constant companion and mirror to the stubborn tediousness of my hands. These opposing forces together allow me fleeting ventures beyond my cantankerous bond with capitalistic reality. Intuitively hoarding relics of mass consumption, littered and lost, I mingle these offcasts with color and forms to possess them with new life beyond landfill.

Happy Vacui Series

In the wake of a traumatic accident in 2015, unable to walk and housebound, I started to hone in on my experiments with acrylics and nail polish, spawning this series.

These paintings are in their basest form, to me, a series of choices. I work intuitively, bouncing between media, landing on what feels right. While I work, I am constantly thinking of shapes, color theory, light and shadow, objects, play, and composition. With meticulous layering and detail, I explore blends of maximalism, horror vacui, and abstraction. The way I paint vacillates between impulsive play and tightly controlled mark making. My work is time intensive and super focused on layers of saturated colors, patterns, and texture. Minute details throughout the compositions urge viewers to slow down and hone in their focus for a while. With a saturated palette and a plethora of repurposed materials, I aim to convey impressions of excess, tediousness, and play.

Solo Exhibition Press Release

Atlanta, Georgia, January 15, 2019  The Bakery Atlanta is pleased to present Happy Vacui, the first solo exhibition by Atlanta visual artist Pearl Bryant, opening  on February 7th.

Over the past three years, Bryant has developed a body of playful, detail-rich, abstract paintings with layers full of saturated colors and patterns. Relics of mass consumption, found objects, makeup, nail polish, and acrylics collide on the painting’s surface to convey excess, tediousness, and play.

Happy Vacui will include 25 small to medium paintings on canvas and found objects. Starting on February 14th and running until February 28th, Bryant will be in the gallery partaking in a daily, live painting performance.

Pearl received her BFA in Studio Art from Auburn University before moving to Atlanta in 2012. In 2015, following a traumatic accident, Pearl began painting again, with Happy Vacui being her first fully realized body of work since. Her work has been shown in group shows throughout Atlanta, including in WonderRoot’s Imaginary Million.