Betsy Arizu

Biography:

1956-

American

Arizu studied art at the University of South Florida, California College of the Arts, J. F. Kennedy University, and Kala Art Institute in Berkeley. She currently lives and works in Raleigh, North Carolina.

She is an abstract painter working in mixed media, whose practice is informed by close observation of both natural and urban environments—their shifting textures, subtle color relationships, and layered surfaces. Her work explores how color and form are experienced in relationship, creating fields that invite sustained looking and quiet attention.

Rather than representing specific subjects, her paintings function as perceptual environments. Through nuanced variations in color, transparency, and surface, she creates spaces that can evoke a sense of depth, movement, and stillness. Viewers are invited to engage directly with the work, allowing their own experience of steadiness, openness, ease, spaciousness, clarity, and groundedness to emerge.

Curator's Statement from Textural Modernism: Original Works on Paper and Canvas

"The work of this artist represents all the finest components found in the vocabulary of textural modernism. The devices set forth by the painter repeatedly explore this language. While Arizu adheres to certain compositional constraints, the viewer finds endless layers of content including blended colors and textures distilled to a purely visual level delightful to the artistic experience."  ~Marcie Hoffman Porges (2006)