APPROVAL STAGE
01 NOVEMBER THRU 15 DECEMBER 2024
Kyle Beal
VIVIANEART is pleased to present, Approval Stage, an exhibition of new works by Alberta artist Kyle Beal. Since his debut presentation with the gallery in 2018, Beal has continued his preoccupation with mirrors and the stage. Employing his characteristic intellect and wit, he uses these forms to build upon ideas of authenticity and individuality, performing and thinning space between digital and physical realities.
Approval Stage consists of new work from Beal’s ongoing series of mirrors. Each is 30” x 24”, a format that is portrait size, uniform in a way that echoes the endless scroll of content compressed to suit the screen. Using ‘verre eglomise’, a process of adhering precious metal to glass, he embeds text into the silver backing. There is a nod to the meme format here, and yet viewers cannot help but see themselves in the text, blurring the space between what is in front, what is behind, what is surface and object.
Paired with these mirror works are a series of drawings. These highly nuanced renderings explore the final moment on stage. A curtain backdrop, with confetti dropping, creates a conceptual space where the performer is caught between their character and themselves, and where the audience is caught between receiving entertainment and demonstrating a signal of approval back to the stage. The end of the grand finale, a magical moment, often joyous, sometimes performative (a rote standing ovation for example), but occasionally ecstatic in a profound individual way within the communal experience.
Approval Stage takes a critical eye to the nature of our evolving reality, and the tension often demanded by social networks to be both content creator and consumer. Observing how this tension bleeds into the ‘real’ world, in ways obscured and complicated by algorithm suggestions. Overall, the works presented seek to celebrate and reaffirm our existence
Beal holds a BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design (2001) and an MFA from the University of Victoria (2004). His work has been exhibited across Canada and the USA, in Montreal, Toronto, New York City, Calgary, Saskatoon, Seattle, and Vancouver, notably including presentation in the 2015 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, and the Esker Foundation, Calgary, among others. He was also the feature of a solo exhibition at The Nickle Gallery in 2022. Beal currently lives and works in Edmonton, Alberta. Beal’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, the Alberta Foundation of the Arts and the Glenbow Museum, Calgary and numerous private collections.
