Work samples
About Marybeth
Marybeth Chew is painter originally from Wilmington, DE. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 2001-2005, and received an MFA from the Leroy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at MICA in 2016.
Film Reference Head Studies
I have worked with paused images of faces from film reference since the early 2000's. The attraction to these images is first my love of the films and genre film itself. I have watched so many genre and B films that they are part of my own imagination and are the most comfortable source of catharsis for me. I love the beauty of film as a medium, and try to preserve its look in my paintings, while remediating the effect and expression of that imagery into corporeal thick and layered paint. Initially, I worked with images from paused vhs tapes, and now use digital photos of an old tube tv for reference. The cathode tube lighting heightens color and distorts details in a way that is inspiring to me aesthetically and which helps me add to the image from my own interpretation, identification, and expression.
The impetus for these paintings is processing emotional experiences into a simplified direct proxy, much like how genre and pulp stories work on our imaginations. They are an emotional release for me, as images and in the process of painting. I choose images that impact me both as pictures and moments within the experience of a story. Paused, the expression is separated from the events, and the isolation makes the images open as conduit of just feeling, interpretable for both myself and the viewer.
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Witch
Witch, 36” x 24”, Oil on Canvas , 2023
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Fighter
Fighter, 24” x 18”, oil on panel, 2023
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Bloody Teeth
Bloody Teeth , 24” x 24”, Oil on Panel, 2023
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Ghosts and More Ghosts
Ghosts and More Ghosts , 24" x 24", 2023, oil on canvas
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Pieces
Pieces, 20 x 24, oil on canvas, 2022
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Black Narcissus
Black Narcissus, 24 x 24, oil on canvas, 2020
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Blood Theater
Blood Theater, 24" x 24", oil on canvas
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Invasion UFO
'Invasion UFO', 10" x10", oil on canvas, 2017
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Birds
Birds, 2004, 18" x 16", oil on canvas
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Alice Sweet Alice
Alice Sweet Alice, 2004, 20" x 20", oil on canvas
Serial Watercolors
These serial watercolor painting use reference from genre film, stray internet imagery, my snapshots, and imagination. They are maximalist sci fi fantasy non linear narratives, and are inspired by the movement of time in film, the genres of science fiction, B horror, and experimental film, the history of western painting, comic books, dream imagery, and quasi metaphysical ideas via pop fiction.
In this work I am enjoying many weird varied stories and combining them into elusive almost stories. The media references often contain problematic cultural symbols and subtexts. Part of the process in each piece is an associative exploration of ideas and discovering what has been subconsciously generated in my internalization of them.
The ultimate whole, materially and narratively, adds a historically weighted tactility, urges inferences, and suggests threads of mysticism in popular media and cyberspace.
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Bat Eye Blob
Bat Eye Blob, 22” x 20”, Watercolor on hot press paper, 2023
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Eyes Tongues
Eyes Tongues, 20" x 16", watercolor on hot press paper, 2024
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In the Air
In the Air, 22" x 30", watercolor on hotpress paper, 2024
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Lair.jpg
Pace, 23” x 30”, Watercolor on 400 lb cold press paper, 2023
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3- Portal, 22” x 23”, watercolor on cold press paper, 2023.jpg
Portal, 22” x 23”, watercolor on cold press paper, 2023
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Snake
Snake, 12" x 14", watercolor on cold press paper, 2022
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Loving Your Fate
Loving Your Fate, 2021, 22" x 20", watercolor on cold press paper
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Looked Back
Looked Back, 20" x 18", watercolor on cold press paper, 2022
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Farther Out
Farther Out, 20" x 16", watercolor on hot press paper, 2022
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Transmit
'Transmit', 16" x 12", watercolor on cold press paper, 2021
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Serial Oil Paintings
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It is a Good Life Which Leads to a Good Death
'It is a Good Life Which Leads to a Good Death', 36" x 36", oil on canvas, 2022
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Woman at Her Bath (After Degas)
' Woman at Her Bath (After Degas)' , 36" x 36", oil on canvas, 2020
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Night Walk, 18" x 24", oil on canvas, 2021
Night Walk, 18" x 24", oil on canvas, 2021
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Blood Feast
Blood Feast, 22" x 18", Oil on Canvas, 2019
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Re Enactment
'Re-Enactment' , 18" x 24", oil on canvas, 2019
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Peeping Tom in the Slime Bowl a Rama Beyond the Stars
'Peeping Tom in the Slime-Bowl-a-Rama Beyond the Stars', 20 x 16, oil on panel, 2020
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Mirror Crack'd (With Elizabeth Taylor)
Mirror Crack'd (With Elizabeth Taylor) 54" x 28", Craft Paint and Acrylic on canvas, 2018
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Habitats
During quarantine I began this series of natural history display paintings, thinking essentially about extinction. The artificial scenes felt relatable to the surreal experience of interacting through computer screens, feeling like a display myself. As the series progressed I began to think of these more as considering mediated presentations and odd illusions of nature.
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Lion
Lion, 24" x 24", oil on canvas, 2021
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Primates Case at the Smithsonian
Primates Case at the Smithsonian, 24" by 2'4" oil on canvas, 2017
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Birds Display Case
Bird Display Case, 36" x 24", Oil on canvas, 2021
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Chameleon
Chameleon, 16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2022
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The Long Climb
The Long Climb, 16" x 20", oil on panel, 2022
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Zoo Interior Room
Zoo Interior Room, 18”x 18”, oil on panel, 2021
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Big Cat
Big Cat, 12" x 12" oil on panel, 2022
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Museum
Museum, 18x 24, oil on panel, 2021
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Big Cats Display
Big Cats Display- Detail-, work in progress , 30" x 40"
Scenes
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Kid With TV
Kid With TV, 18" x 24", oil on panel, 2023
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Car Explosion 2
Car Explosion 2, 12" x 16", oil on oil paper, 2023
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Car Exploding
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Little Stories
"Little Stories" 12"x 12", oil on panel, 2021
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Rendezvous
Rendezvous, 36" x 24", Oil on Canvas, 2019
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Battle Beyond the Sun
Battle Beyond the Sun, 36" x 24", Oil on Canvas, 2018
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Amazing Colossal Man
Amazing Colossal Man, 24" x 24", Oil on Panel, 2018
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Miniseries
Miniseries,12" x 12", Oil on Panel, 2018
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Annie Opens the Door
Annie Opens the Door, 12" x 9", oil on canvas, 2016
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Bears
Before and After
Taken from 'before/after' cosmetic surgery advertisements, these paintings raise issues about the power of objectification, how we relate with our embodiment, and how much we are possessions of a society. These images illustrate culture manipulating the extremes of the personal, physically transforming these many individual forms. My emphasis is on commonality between the persons throughout these body states, and a fluctuating, elastic, sense of identity.
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Before and After Tummy Tuck
Before and After Tummy Tuck, 30" x 30", 2019, Oil on Canvas
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Before After Abdominoplasty
Before After Abdominoplasty, 24" x 18", oil on canvas, 2019
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Before and After All Together 2
Before and After All Together 2 , 46" x 38", 2019, Oil on Canvas
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Before and After All Together 1
Before and After All Together 1 , 24" x 24", 2019 Oil on Canvas
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Before and After Lipo
Before and After Lipo, Oil on Canvas, 48" x 46", 2017
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Before and After Stomachs
Before and After Stomacha, 20" by 16", 2016, oil on canvas
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Before and After Stomach 2
Before and After Stomach 2, Oil on Canvas, 20" x 16", 2016
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Before After Implant
Before After Implant, 36" x 48", 2016
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Before After Butts
'Before/After Butts' 20" by 16" 2016 oil on canvas
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Before and After Butts 2
Before and After Butts 2, Oil on Canvas, 20" x 16", 2016
Marker Drawings
This series of marker drawings were a bridge for me to watercolor and personal workshop of playing with story in multiple panels. They mostly use reference from just one film as an attempt to capture a gestalt of that film. A few branched out into combining references and creating a new story or set of comparisons.
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Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors, 13" x 15", marker on tracing paper, 2017
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Skin Comes Off
Skin Comes Off
11 x17
2017
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Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery
Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery, 8 1/2 " by 11", marker on paper, 2017
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Alligator
Alligator
8 1/2 x 11
2019
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Def by Temptation
' Def by Temptation' 11 x 14 2019
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Over the Edge
Over The Edge, 8 1/2 x 14, 2017
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Body Melt
Body Melt, 17" by 11", marker on paper, 2017
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Masters of the Skies
Masters of the Skies, 11" by 17", marker on paper, 2017
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V
V, 17" by 11", marker on paper, 2017
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The Being
The Being
8 1/2 x 11
2019