Like a minimalist desert landscape, the newest works of Josie Bell are both abstractly simple and profoundly complex. Nearly monochromatic, the bold images incorporate loosely organic shapes, folding pebbles, rocks, and marble dust between thick fields of oil paint. Texture builds from the canvas ground like brittle crusts of earth, revealing the artist’s labored and expressive gestures. Process occupies a prominent role in Bell’s new work, not the relaxed process of buttery paint and flowing forms, but the rigorous, demanding process of the desert landscape.

Like the cycle of the earth, Bell’s newest works invite the viewer to act as a co-creator. We find ourselves delving below the surface of the visual plane, unearthing hidden beauty. Our minds fill in the details of what could be mineral fragments, fossils, or carbonized ash. Subtle shades of sienna, ochre, and slate grey soothe the senses, reminding us of clay, earth, and stone. In this connection, Bell’s works seem almost typographical, conjuring visual parallels to satellite imaging of the earth’s surface. The works alludes to the interplay of microcosm and macrocosm, the contrast between limitless expanse and finite details.

The “Loss of the Amazônia” (A Perda da Amazônia) # 2 series provides a powerful contrast to Bell’s previous works, which focused on the lushness of Amazonia rather than the withdrawal of deforestation. Herself a transplant from the rainforests of Brazil to the high desert of Utah, Bell has investigated the themes of exploration, destruction, regeneration, and process in her work to capture the paradoxical beauty of the earth and the cycle of growth, death and rebirth.

In many ways, Bell’s new works share similarities with the mid-century style, Art Informel. The European counterpart to Abstract Expressionism, Art Informel emerged immediately after World War II, as artists sought to reestablish fundamentals during a period of devastation dubbed “Year Zero.” Artists, like Jean Fautrier, sought new ways to communicate their ideas, often returning to the origins of visual imagery. With techniques akin to cave painting and prehistoric practices, informel artists concentrated on the materiality of artistic production, not the optical qualities of what was being seen. This strong connection between artist and materials is present in Bell’s recent works, which also embody the themes of devastation, hope, and rebuilding.