“From a young age, I felt most confident and content when I was engaged in a creative process. I was determined to express myself creatively in any medium I came across. I enjoyed the act of investigating, trying new processes and watching as my ideas materialized,” begins the story of Wolert’s artistic journey. Raised by parents who grew up in farming communities of Poland and had little understanding of contemporary art, Bea pursued art despite her parents’ wish for her to find a “more practical” career. After getting her BA in Design and dabbling in some unfulfilling commercial work, she would go on to receive her Masters in Painting from Pratt. With no specific chosen medium, she works variably in ink; acrylic, oil and household paints; fiber, stones, crystals, ceramics, found objects, concrete, plexiglass; industrial spools of thread, zippers; bra hooks, eye extenders and carpet tufting, to name a few. “I like there to be an openess and unpredictability in my chosen medium and materials. Initially, there is an attraction to a color, material, texture—and an impulse to attain it without always a clear vision of what may become of it at that moment.” Sometimes, a gestation period up to a decade long might ensue before Bea harnesses the potential of a particular material. During that period, it might live at the periphery of her studio or home, in a relationship with the artist, trust slowly established. “I am almost waiting for the material to grant over permission to be used,” explains Bea. She is influenced strongly by her maternal Grandmother, who came from Poland to live with Bea’s family when the artist was just four months old. Her Grandmother’s use of her hands and sense of doing — whether making crochet, pierogi or chopping purple cabbage while singing — made an impact on Bea. “She worked with her hands until the point she no longer could and that was difficult for me to watch.” In “Attempt at a Memory: Grandma Cuts Cabbage,” Bea recounts her memory of her Grandmother cutting cabbage in the kitchen, slicing an industrial spool of thread — the same color as the cabbage — to its core. From this piece came the Sliced Thread series. In work that explores material culture, ephemerality, beauty in the everyday, the blurring between art and life; the personification of material; the subversion of the intended or prescribed use of material; and the individual and the collective — Wolert views materials as “snapshots of a society at any given moment.” Called an inventor, experimenter, bricoleur and alchemist, “I work intuitively and actively practice making space in order to maximize ways of tapping into that creative place. I honor moments when seemingly incongruous materials want to come together.” Increasing the viewer’s awareness around materials one might engage with on a daily basis can be a compelling result of the work. Conversations around beauty, longing, materiality, spirituality, art, craft, meaning, value and function are central. As a mother, partner and Deputy Director at CUE Art Foundation, maintaining a studio practice takes a lot of strategic prioritization. Wolert uses daily meditation to open space, remain aware and increase clarity. Working out of her studio in Greenpoint, her home, the outdoors and wherever her travels take her also prove suitable working environments at times. Once, when headed to a retreat in Vermont, she compulsively toted along a 100-foot roll of silver reflective mylar. Rolling it out at sunset, Bea zoned in on the material’s inherent reflective properties. It naturally moved like water playing with the sunlight. The results of such a piece “would not be possible without the attraction, the foresight and openness to change,” explains Bea. Recently filling triangle-shaped cake decorating piping bags with paint for a drip piece for the altar at Park Church Co-op, part of her ongoing series “Offering,” this site-specific piece was designed to match the iconic Church Co-op’s stained glass windows and pierced weekly as an ongoing, ephemeral and ritual act. Currently, Wolert is working on her Pierogi Project. Inspired by pleasant childhood memories making pierogi with Grandma, her participatory, community-based project involves collecting and archiving photos, audio stories, written stories, and other ephemera around the tradition of pierogi-making as well as ceramic clay pierogis capturing the shape of each individual maker’s hand. “This project signifies a changing neighborhood and the loss of Polish traditions in Greenpoint. Like the materials I use, the memories of this place are ephemeral. This project aims to memorialize that ephemerality.” Ultimately, Wolert intends to create an archive, publication and exhibition of the ceramic pierogi.
Follow the artist on Instagram @beawolert