BETTINA FORGET

catalogueMOON SERIES, NEUTRON STARS

Bettina Forget‘s work is based on ideas rather than on a specific visual styles or medium. Much of her work focuses on astronomy, inspired by her avid engagement with amateur astronomy. Examples of her astro-nomically themed works are her current Somnium Project, a series of prints and paintings based on Johannes Kepler’s text “Somnium, The Dream,” the first ever science fiction book written about 400 years ago. For her installation The Naked Eye Bettina painted large-scale, heavily textured, accurate star maps and created an immersive environment reminiscent of a warm summer night by including lawn chairs, a sound track of frogs and crickets, dimmed lights, and flashlights. Visitors to the exhibition were provided with paper star charts and encouraged to explore the (painted) night sky.

Other astronomically themed projects include the We Are Stardust Series, which explores Carl Sagan’s famous quote “We are all made of star stuff,” and the Moon Series, which illustrates the many moons of the planets of the solar system.

Bettina’s work is playful, didactic, and immersive, and aims to create a connection between the viewer and the cosmos.

Bettina Forget is a visual artist living and working in Montreal, Quebec. Born in Germany, she has studied at Central St-Martins School of Art in London, England and at Curtin University in Perth, Australia and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. She has exhibited in the USA, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Singapore, and Nicaragua. Forget is the director of Visual Voice Art Gallery, Visual Voice Lab, and VisualVoiceCollections.com. She also produces and edits online art magazine The Belgo Report.

Moon Series

After reading books about NASA’s Galileo Mission, Bettina Forget became interested in exploring the geology of the many moons of the

solar system. Fascinated by these small worlds, some covered in volcanoes, crackling ice shells, or geysers spewing nitrogen ice

crystals, Bettina created a series of paintings which echo the textures and colours of these moons, and also hints at the possibility of

extraterrestial life developing there. More recently Bettina has returned to the subject of the moon, focusing

this time on the Earth’s moon as part of her research for her sequel to Kepler’s book Somnium.

Life on Europa (front of diptych)2004

acrylic, clay, nylon string on canvas30” x 30”

CAN$ 1,200

Life on Europa (back of diptych)2004

acrylic, clay, nylon string on canvas30” x 30”

Ganymede2004

acrylic and plaster on canvas48” x 48”

CAN$ 1,600

Life on Ganymede2004

acrylic and nylon string on canvasdiptych, 2x 12” x 12” (total 24” x 12”)

CAN$ 500

Eclipsed Moon #22013

acrylic and nylon string on raw linen12” x 12”

CAN$ 300

Eclipsed Moon #22014

acrylic and nylon string on raw linen12” x 12”

CAN$ 300

Moon Phases2014

acrylic and nylon string on canvas18” x 18”

CAN$ 400

Silver Moon2014

acrylic and nylon string on canvas18” x 18”

CAN$ 400

Crater Chain Sketch2014

graphite on paper8” x 6”

CAN$ 50

Clavius Crater Sketch2014

graphite on paper8” x 6”

CAN$ 50

Clavius Crater2014

acrylic on birch panel8” x 12”

CAN$ 200

Neutron Star Series

This series is inspired by graphs and diagrams found in astrophysical papers. Bettina Forget attended a conference on pulsars (a type of

neutron star) in the summer of 2007 and noticed an overlap between the visual abstraction in scientists’ diagrams and abstract paintings

created by visual artists. The Neutron Star series aims to translate scientific diagrams into artworks.

Neutron Star series source graphs

Calvera2008

acrylic on canvas48” x 48”

CAN$ 1,600

J1819-15032007

acrylic on canvas24” x 12”

CAN$ 275

J1317-57592007

acrylic on canvas24” x 12”

CAN$ 275

For enquiries please contactBettina Forget

bettina@visualvoicegallery.comwww.bettinaforget.com