Alumna Bea Parsons '12 in Solo Exhibit 'Peyak'

By
Brittany Nguyen
September 16, 2020

Peyak is alumna Bea Parsons '12  first solo exhibition with McBride Contemporain in Montreal, Quebec. 

Peyak” is the Cree word for “one”. The exhibition features a series of prints surrounding a rhetorical and metaphorical potent notion of oneness. “Peyak” of place, time, presentness, belonging and exclusion, alienation, and communication from the one to the other, or the many. These grappling works situate themselves between the natural world, the grotesque, and many other emblematic sources. They portray Parson’s engagement with both identity and place, wandering between concocted abstraction and world-building narratives. 

“The monotypes in this exhibition are each unique edition printed works, combining several different drawing and painting approaches with the necessary technique and knowhow to bring the images to life with unique expression,” according to the McBride Contemporain. “Parsons’ works have a life of their own, a oneness or monism, not of belief but of personality and energy. They have an enthusiasm of, rather than towards existence - their own and ours. Each of them proposes a discreetly lyrical, imaginative cosmos, a momentary narrative fragment of aesthetic time and a synchronic totality. Parsons explores an oneiric world, creating it as she works, planning and improvising equally, investing in a personal language of symbols and scenes that recur and build, but also leaving an unknown space for immediacy of invention, the possibility of constant surprise and visitation by unknown agencies, from within and beyond herself.”

Parsons is a visual artist currently based in Montreal where she is a current artist-in-resident at Concordia University. She holds a BFA in Studio Art and Art Education from Concordia University ’10 and an MFA in Visual Arts Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. Parsons has recently taught studio art at the University of Texas in Austin and UC Davis in California. She is a nominated grantee from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation in New York. Her work has been exhibited throughout Canada and the United States. She is of Cree, Scottish, and French origins. 

Peyak opened on September 3 and runs through October 3 online and in person, Wednesday through Saturday from 11am—5pm. 

"Four Eyes," by Bea Parsons