Betra Fraval
Artist Profile
Biography
Through her paintings Betra Fraval graphically and poetically interprets the landscapes she encounters. Her graphic abstractions use visual languages of cartography and geographic strata as frameworks for understanding the hidden meanings that particular places hold. Often these places map the artist’s travels and worldy surrounds. In State of Slow Shift Fraval charts the common ground between seemingly disparate environments she has encountered in the past year: the glaciers of Norway and Ben Lomond mountain, Tasmania.
In each of these landscapes, there are powerful undercurrents of knowledge and reflection. Glaciers move at an imperceptible pace, testimonies of the strength of quiet progress. For Ben Lomond, there is a breathtaking awareness of the vastness of time. Its mountainous rock formations date to the Jurassic period and what we experience of them is a mere blink in their history. It hints at the slow, but inevitable passing of time which eventually overtakes all things. Both landscapes are in constant states of slow shift – monuments of past and future.
Through her paintings Betra Fraval graphically and poetically interprets the landscapes she encounters. Her graphic abstractions use visual languages of cartography and geographic strata as frameworks for understanding the hidden meanings that particular places hold. Often these places map the artist’s travels and worldy surrounds. In State of Slow Shift Fraval charts the common ground between seemingly disparate environments she has encountered in the past year: the glaciers of Norway and Ben Lomond mountain, Tasmania.
In each of these landscapes, there are powerful undercurrents of knowledge and reflection. Glaciers move at an imperceptible pace, testimonies of the strength of quiet progress. For Ben Lomond, there is a breathtaking awareness of the vastness of time. Its mountainous rock formations date to the Jurassic period and what we experience of them is a mere blink in their history. It hints at the slow, but inevitable passing of time which eventually overtakes all things. Both landscapes are in constant states of slow shift – monuments of past and future.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 State of Slow Shift, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2020 The Twelve Winds, Res Artists, Glasshouse Studio, Melbourne
2019 Wanderer, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2017 Moving Mountains, James Makin Gallery
2015 Falling into the Sky, Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne
2015 The Rope Doesn’t Hang…the Earth Pulls, Five Walls Projects, Melbourne
2013 Still Remains, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne
2012 The Dead Tree Gives No Shelter, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
2011 A Time of Disappearances, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Captured Traces, Carbon Black Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Unstable Ground, Victoria Park Gallery, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Summer New, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2020 Journey Around My Room, Bus Projects, Melbourne
2020 Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne
2020 John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery
2019 Summer New, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2019 The Utopian Object, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne
2018 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, James Makin Gallery
2018 Selected works by represented artists, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
2016 Stratum, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne
2016 Expanded Gaze Bundoora Homestead Melbourne
2016 The Agency of Things, Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne
2014 VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
2013 Wish You Were Here (SWARM), Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
2011 Disappear, Kings ARI, Melbourne
2011 A4 Art, Westspace Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Forged, Trocadero Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2007 In the Shadows of Opulence, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne
AWARDS / GRANTS / RESIDENCIES
2020 John Leslie Art Prize (finalist), Gippsland Art Gallery
2019 Helsinki International Artist Programme, Finland
2019 Hôtel Sainte Valière, France
2019 R&M McGivern Prize (Finalist), Melbourne
2018 Sachaqa Centro De Arte Artists Residency, Peru
2018 BigCi Artists Residency, Blue mountains
2016 John Leslie Art Prize (finalist), Gippsland Art Gallery
2016 Cowwarr Art Residency, Victoria, Australia
2015 Banyule Award Works on Paper (finalist), Hatch Contemporary Arts Space
2014 McClelland Sculpture Award (finalist), McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park
2014 Galloway Lawson Award , Victorian College of the Arts
2011 Janet Holmes à Court Artists’ Grant, National Association for the Visual Arts
2011 Works on Paper Prize (finalist), Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, NSW
2009 Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship (finalist), VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Sankriti Kendra Art Residency, New Delhi, India
2006 Seventh Exhibition Grant, Seventh Gallery, Making Space ARI Festival
2005 Maude Glover Fleay Award, Victorian College of the Arts
2005 Tolarno Hotel VCA Annual Art Award, Victorian College of the Arts
ARTWORKS
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Betra Fraval Desert Bloom
2024
oil on linen
138 x 111 cm
$11,000.00
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Betra Fraval Body and Landscape
2023
oil on linen
31 x 26 cm
$1,700.00
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Betra Fraval Geologic Meditation (Yellow),
2023
oil on linen
31 x 26 cm
$1,700.00
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Betra Fraval Geologic Meditation (Pink)
2023
oil on linen
31 x 26 cm
$1,700.00
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Betra Fraval Geologic Meditation (Panorama)
2023
oil on linen
91 x 240 cm
$17,000.00
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Betra Fraval Carved Landscape (Karijini) (Finalist, Bayside Art Prize 2022)
2022
oil on linen
138 x 112 cm
$11,000.00
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Betra Fraval Strata
2022
oil on linen
122 x 91.5 cm
$8,800.00
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