The exhibition „flowers never die, they are reborn: Betty Bee’s portraits of resilience“ starts with the artist’s most recent works (all untitled). The canvases are mostly large, colors are always vivid, as if showing that Bee colors will never fade. The surfaces are glittering1, and the execution is flawless. Yet, there is some darkness on the formations they lay. A central element of the exhibition is the installation „Untitled„, which consists of 14 heart-shaped canvases, each showing a delicately worked flower. Although each flower stands alone, they are all connected, held together by the tension of barbed wire.
Then we find historical works such as Muca Pazza (1996), the video work Gilda (1995), or Mice Puppet (1995), all of which highlight recurring symbols that pervade Bee’s entire body of work.
To the left, a door leads from the main gallery space to more intimate, private areas of the gallerist’s home; works are displayed alongside objects, such as a dining table, bookshelves, and an apartment TV.
And it is here in the living room TV that the documentary Betty Bee: Surviving Art (Ciao Bucchi), directed by Didi Gnocchi, is being screened. This intimate film, which won the first prize at the Turin Film Festival in 1999, offers a very personal portrait of the artist. Narrated primarily by Betty Bee herself, the documentary also includes insights from key figures connected to her world—gallerists, collectors, and art scene personalities such as Achille Bonito Oliva, Umberto Santamaria of Galleria Raucci/Santamaria, Diego Dolcini, Nini Sgambati, Ernesto Esposito, adding external perspectives to her history. A particularly touching moment is when ten-year-old daughter Sara reads the tribute letter penned by the artist, in which Bee imagines what others might say after her death. The letter reflects Betty Bee’s contemplation of mortality, particularly her imagined demise by suicide, including always a good deal of humour:
“Betty Bee was born in Naples in 1962 or 1963. She was an artist, waitress, actress, hairdresser, fashion model, manicurist, singer, tramper, mother, wife, lover, and (not) lover. She committed suicide in 2000, and…”
On the bookshelf plays Vico delle Fatte (2015, 3’37”). The work delves into early memories of the artist, offering insights into the origins of the „squeezed forms“. The video tells the story of Giuà, Sciuè, and Iuppepì, all childhood neighbourhood friends whom the artist was not allowed to see at her father’s behest. In an effort to feel close to them, she came to the idea to shape them out of Plasticine, but found herself repeatedly stepping on them to distort their form2. These figures still haunt the artist as an adult, appearing in her drawings, paintings and this video.
At the back of the exhibition, earlier photo and performance works by Bee3, including Firewoman (2005) and Tulip (2005), are presented in a grid format, alongside works by other artists of the gallery.
While these historical works are important, the exhibition flower never die, they are reborn: Betty Bee’s portraits of resilience seems to place greater emphasis on the artist’s new body of work.
Exhibition: flowers never die, they are reborn: Betty Bee’s portraits of resilience
Exhibition duration: 30.11.24 – 25.01.2025
Address and contact:
Umberto Di Marino
Via Monte di Dio 9
www.galleriaumbertodimarino.com
- In some of the Untitled works the glittering black of the canvas evokes the vastness of a starry sky. Exhibition dossier ↩︎
- Storting for being able to hide them from the father. ↩︎
- Betty Bee’s artistic career took root in the early 1990s and has since flourished across a multitude of prominent exhibitions worldwide. Her work has been showcased among others in KunstRaum in Vienna, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Marino, De Appel and the Center for Contemporary Art in Amsterdam, Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Maschio Angioino in Naples, and PAN (Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli). She has been featured at PAC in Milan, Stiftung Theater und Kunst in Berlin, and Chelsea Art Museum in New York. Her art has also graced MAXXI in Rome, Dorsky Gallery in NYC, Museo del Novecento in Milan, the Morra Greco Foundation in Naples, Palazzo Reale in Milan, Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, and MADRE – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina in Naples. ↩︎
