Bea Nettles

Reviews / Votes

There is a kind of magic in Nettles's work, as though she isn't recording reality in her images but creating it. This feels true of her process as well-its unique combination of chance and manual manipulation. The focus of much photography is the outside world; Nettles turns the camera on her interior life, producing images that are reflective and representative of her memories as well as of her feelings. (New York Review of Books) A gorgeous, massive new monograph. (Nashville Scene) In our age of ubiquitous selfies and 'mixed media' it is refreshing to review the work of an artist who is truly a pioneer in the area of visual self-evaluation with artistic purposes. With a strong background in painting, a fearless approach to self-assessment, and a love of language, Bea Nettles is a shining example for effectively integrating photography, especially alternative processes, with other modes of visual and verbal expression...Highly recommended! (PhotoBook Journal) [Nettles'] work engages with a core series of ideas through multiple, innovative approaches. I am struck by the depth of emotion, and her willingness to share her own story and experiences so candidly and powerfully, in her work...This exhibition, catalog, and new scholarship reaffirm her position within the history of art and photography as an essential, influential, and powerful artist. (Strange Fire Collective) The gorgeous catalogue accompanying this current well-deserved and long-overdue comprehensive retrospective of her dizzyingly diverse work...goes a long way to serving as an ideal introduction of the public to this larger-than-life yet almost invisible presence on the cultural scene...Bea Nettles has proven herself to be not only a long-distance runner and survivor but also an exemplary exponent of that most alluring of contemporary art mandates: the re-enchantment of everyday life. (Critics At Large)