About

After studying French literature in Paris and political theory at L’Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium, Bear Cannon pursued English literature and critical theory at DePaul University in Chicago. At DePaul, Bear earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and her first Master of Arts. As Bear’s interest in critical theory grew, she found herself drawn to exploring the intersection of aesthetics and social thought. This led to a deep dive into modern philosophy at The University of Chicago where Bear earned a second master’s degree.

Bear spent her formative years in Chicago but currently resides outside of Columbia, South Carolina. Her paintings are inspired by the pine forests of South Carolina’s Midlands, the waters of Lake Murray, and frequent trips to the coastal plains of the Lowcountry. Most of all, however, emotion is what moves Bear to apply paint to canvas. States of mind, mood, and cognitive consonance and dissonance inform her images with a sense of wonder at both the energy and power of our interior lives. Deep, dark color contrasted with flashes of light reflect a mind grappling with questions of what it means to be human in a postmodern world. In Bear’s work, this existential anxiety is both felt and challenged. Ultimately, her paintings seem to suggest that the dark is only visible in contrast to the light and that meaning emerges in their juxtaposition.

Bear’s style is characterized by a keen interest in color field painting and high saturation mark-making. This leads to a dominance of jewel tones like sapphire blue, emerald green, and deep violet. Naturally, these darker shades are only made apparent through contrast with lighter hues, and for those Bear tends toward playful fluorescents and calming neutrals. Regarding form, Bear’s work makes a nod toward the hard-edge abstractionists of the late twentieth century. Interestingly, however, where you will find a preference for flat planes of color and simple geometric shapes in the minimalism of most hard-edge painters, Bear uses more organic forms and oscillates between flat and variegated marks with her signature move being an emphasis on variegation.