Barry Schwabsky at Art In America:
What abstraction does best is take painting apart and then put it back together differently. Paige Beeber understands that principle better than most artists, and she puts it into practice at both material and perceptual levels, melding physicality and illusion.
My first contact with Beeber’s paintings came via the computer screen. My impression then was that the paintings would be very dimensional, like montaged reliefs, so I was surprised when I finally saw the works in person—this would have been around three years ago—and realized that their layered patchwork of colors was mostly just painted rather than assembled. But let me accentuate that word: mostly. Beeber does use collage in her painting, but it is her conceptual or perceptual cutting and pasting that predominates. The literal collaging in her work complements and sometimes contradicts her purely painterly juxtapositions. At a certain distance, or in reproduction, the effect is almost trompe l’œil, but just a slightly closer or longer look is enough to dispel the momentary illusion: This is painting that always wants to keep the materiality of painting visible.
more here.
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