Artist Statement
I am a Russian artist based in Glasgow, exploring roots as the cornerstone of identity.
My work consists of oil paintings on canvas or board and monochrome works — etching and lithography.
I work from memory as well as cropped images. I am motivated by themes of immersion and invitation, I am creating a narrative using elements that have significance — points of connection that are derived from recognition. I set stages and choreograph its inhabitants. The challenge is working out that balancing act — creating a world where figures cannot exist without the space and the space cannot exist without the figures.
Contemporary political reality in Russia sees a complete rewriting of history and no one is acting, paralysed in a world of mythologies and nostalgia. Myths do not exist anywhere except cultural memory. It is, however, a ruined and fragmented culture, with accordingly unfamiliar myths, which breed violence and horror. What is left among the debris of the cultural tradition and what is art’s role in filling this void?
I look at traditional fairytales for inspiration. I create works loaded in context, rooted in explorations of pattern. I find myself drawn to my family’s old photo albums from the “prosperous 90s”. There is a conversation that emerges between the real subjects and something otherworldly, uncanny. I paint the past to transport one to the present, connecting the gap that explains the chaos, obvious now more than ever. I present nostalgic paintings, which have a feel about them that is loving and familiar. I think about land, identity, and family that I am no longer a part of or feel a distance from. I think about how to convey a sense of loss, displacement and belonging. I use painting as a tool to process reality.
I am a graduate of Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art.
C.V.
Born in 1999 in Moscow. beteeva.art | @getbeta Based in the UK.
RSA New Contemporaries, Euan Stewart Memorial Prize for Printmaking.
EDUCATION
2022–2023 Turps Correspondence Course
2018–2022 Glasgow School of Art: BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting & Printmaking 2017–2018 University of the Arts London: CCW Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
EXHIBITIONS
2024 (forthcoming) RSA New Contemporaries Exhibition, Edinburgh (selected artist)
2023 (forthcoming) Crossing The Line, SaltSpace, Glasgow (selected artist) (forthcoming) Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay (selected artist)
2022 Enya, Saola, Glasgow (selected artist)
Scottish Portrait Awards Fine Art Online Exhibition (nominated artist)
Blazar 2022 with DeepList, The Museum of Moscow, Moscow (art fair) Carnival of Dreams, The Life Room, Edinburgh (group show)
The Glasgow School of Art Degree Show, Stow, Glasgow (Glasgow School of Art group show)
REVERB, Visual Arts Scotland Annual Exhibition, the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (selected artist)
ROOTS, SaltSpace, Glasgow (group show)
2021 Stuck, The Glue Factory, Glasgow (Glasgow School of Art group show) 195th Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition (selected artist)
2020 Scottish Portrait Awards Fine Art Online Exhibition (nominated artist) Rabbit Skin, The Glue Factory, Glasgow (Glasgow School of Art group
show)
International WENCH Day — Music, Art, Comedy & Spoken Word, The Waverley, Edinburgh (group show)
2019 Displacement, The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow (group show)
Test Bed Exhibition 1., Tontine, Glasgow (Glasgow School of Art group
show)
CLASH vol.1, South Block, Glasgow (selected artist)
2018 Where People Sleep: Rooted, 49 West Princes Street, Glasgow (selected
artist)
Foundation — A Clean Edit, Peckham Pelican, London (selected artist) CCW Foundation show, London (CCW Foundation group show)
TALKS/WORKSHOPS/CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE
2022 Life Drawing Tutor, St Margaret’s House, Edinburgh, Sept - present Sky Portrait Artist of the Year, Nov
COLLECTIONS
MEMBERSHIPS
Private Collections in Moscow, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh.
Saltspace Coop, Glasgow, UK Society of Scottish Artists, UK