Susan Low-Beer and Yael Brotman: jangle[d]

Rodman Art Institute of Niagara

Susan Low-Beer, A Long Marriage, 2025, clay, glaze, stains, and paint, 11.5″ x 13.75″ x 10″

jangle[d]
Susan Low-Beer and Yael Brotman

June 20 – September 13, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, June 20, 2025 7 – 9pm
Rodman Art Institute of Niagara, St. Catharines

For the past few years our world, society, and our personal lives are feeling ever more discordant. Our senses a bit jangled as we try to make sense of it all. jangle[d] is a two-person exhibition and a serendipitous encounter of Toronto-based artists and friends, Susan Low-Beer and Yael Brotman. Amidst the chaos of COVID they discovered that they were both creating independent bodies of work focusing on their personal reactions to a post-COVID chaotic and disjointed world and the complex entanglements and simple moments of connection that arose. Low-Beer and Brotman share a common interest in using abstraction in their interpretation of the human condition. When viewed together, the work results in an unintentional and symbiotic aesthetic connection creating dialogue amidst the tension and entanglements they depict. In this exhibition, Low-Beer and Brotman show us that through the discordant noise that surrounds us, we can still find beauty in unexpected connections and opportunities.

jangle[d] focuses on the relationship between natural and human-made materiality. In Susan Low-Beer’s sculptures the clay and found materials are impossibly tangled. Earth and urban detritus are juxtaposed or interlaced to confuse perception. In Yael Brotman’s prints, analog printmaking techniques are intertwined with digital elements. Enhanced by odd shadows, a tromp l’oeil effect is created, making the viewer wonder about the implied depth of space. These prints incorporate references to nature and to human-engineered electronics.

Thematically, their work is concerned with the containment of chaos, and their attempts to visually control what they feel is out of control. They see their work as an attempt to make sense of their feelings of helplessness as they seek to confront the mayhem in our culture, in our civilization, and in our world.

Yael Brotman, The World is a very Narrow Bridge 13, 2025, etching, collage; archival inkjet print and stenciling on Hahnemühle paper, 15″ x 15″

About the Artists:

Susan Low-Beer, a Toronto-based artist, received her BFA at Mount Allison University and her MFA, with a major in painting, at Cranbrook Academy of Art. In 1999 she received the Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in Crafts and in 2000 was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She has exhibited internationally in Europe, United States, Japan and Korea, as well as nationally in both juried and invitational exhibitions and has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards. Her work is represented in numerous International collections including the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in New Brunswick, the National Museum of Modern Art in Japan, and the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in North Carolina. In 2017-2018 Low-Beer’s work was the subject of a retrospective, exhibited at the Art Gallery of Algoma, Norfolk Art Centre and the Clay and Glass Gallery.

Yael Brotman, is a Toronto-based artist, whose practice includes 2D printmaking, and print-based sculpture and installations. Her work explores themes of human interaction with the environment and architecture, displacement, identity, and the idea of home. Brotman continues to exhibit in solo and group exhibitions across Canada, in Europe, US, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. She was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She has participated in residencies including in Ireland, Norway, China. Recently she was awarded an Honorable Mention Prize at the Taiwan International Print Biennial. She was a professor at University of Toronto and has served on several arts boards that support artists’ rights in Canada.

Rodman Art Institute of Niagara (RAiN) is a public art gallery, in downtown St. Catharines, dedicated to the public’s appreciation and understanding of the visual arts.

For information and media inquiries, contact:
Angela Brayham, Director / Curator, abrayham@rodmanart.ca

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