Bio
Creating abstract paintings and surreal found object sculptures in her Chicago studio, Beth LeFauve investigates the balance between the personal and the universal. Through her love of composition, color, and materials, LeFauve discovers the visual and emotional expression of private possessions and worldly junk, connected to tell a new story.
Her art has been exhibited in Chicago, Stockholm, and Athens. Most recently LeFauve exhibited her work in the group shows “Observing Mothrhood” at ARC Gallery and “Build” at Oliva Gallery. Beth’s art work has also graced the sets of television shows and films. She received Honorable Mention and Distinguished Artist awards from Art Ascent magazine. She is a an art teacher, curator and collector.
Raised in a modernist Japanese house, with an artistic family, Beth LeFauve has been surrounded by and making art all of her life. A graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Beth moved to Chicago an an interior designer and still occasionally works in that field.
Artist Statement
My work draws from my formal training in interior design. Like the architecture of rooms, my sculptural boxes invoke meaning through the re-purposing and strategic placement of found objects. By transforming the use of ignored or forgotten histories of things, I strive to awaken them for a new purpose and meaning. Broken dolls, thrown out wallpaper, lost family photographs, pottery shards, chemistry tools and keys become objects of beauty – imbued with secrets and significance. The objects are made to fill up, escape, push themselves out or hide, linking meanings together like paper chains. The containers I use each had a former purpose – initially housing ammunition, fruit, or tools, inspiring a new plot with each container, and putting objects and box into conversation with each other.
I like to integrate a community of voices within each box. Family and friends collaborate with me by contributing things they have also found in alleys, garages or junk shops. Their shared stories and objects inform the mosaic of each finished piece.
Underlying my work is a compulsion to reuse old materials, both as a creative resource but also for my children’s generation of how we interpret this world of things prized or ignored. From something discarded and forgotten, I strive to create beauty and value.