bio

Sharaine Bell lives and works in Oakland, CA and is a graduate of The San Francisco Art Institute.  Notable exhibitions include, “Signed and Numbered”, May 2016, Jules Maeght Gallery, San Francisco; “Emerging”, 2014, Campfire Gallery, San Francisco; “Conveyer”, 2013, Swarm Studios Installation, Oakland; “F5”, 2013, Studios 11 Installation, Oakland, as well as group shows at Sacramento State University, Vorpal Gallery, San Francisco, and the Sacramento Public Library. Her work hangs in both corporate & private collections including that of Visa Corp. & Maurice Kanbar.

statement

My work addresses the tension between civilization and nature with regard to the status of land possession. As we sprawl and choose land to erect our cities and industries based on their aesthetic qualities and offerings of resources and convenience; there is little consideration to the interaction with the ever present and often interstitial forces of nature. The ecosystems we usurp are only temporarily forced to recede. Whether slow and deliberate or with great sweeping force; nature eventually emerges to reclaim its possession of the land.

These images are a reflection of my fixation on the seemingly effortless erasure of structures and communities from a particular space.  There is recognition of the stillness in the moments after total devastation and the physical and emotional void that is left in the wake of a disaster.

The compositions are meant to communicate nature’s successful attempt to assert its inherent randomness despite our increasingly structured encasement. They are commentaries on the disruption and resilience of natural systems.