CHANTAL E.Y. BETHEL
Chantal E.Y. Bethel is a mixed media artist whose practice encompasses painting and sculpture.
Her work is inspired from life; she uses her internal landscape and emotions as source and celebrates the various cultures she has experienced.
A Bahamian artist born in Haiti and educated in Belgium, Bethel’s diverse background is a key foundational influence for the complex and multilayered artworks that reflect her story.
Bethel loves to experiment with new techniques, using Royal Palm leaves, objects applied to the surface and particularly the acrylic “crackle” for which she has become known. The crackle is a medium that creates a shattered texture allowing the viewer to see beyond the surface and is, for her, a metaphor of life.
Bethel’s work is in the permanent collection of
The Waterloo Centre for the Arts museum in Iowa, USA and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. Her work can also be found in various corporate and private collections, including the Dawn Davies Collection and the D’Aguilar Art Foundation in The Bahamas.
A R T B O O K S
Beyond the Surface: Art, Discovery, Healing and Transformation tells personal and universal stories within this full colour 112-page hardcover coffee table book sharing artist Chantal Bethel's works. Through the lens of her creative journey, themes and discoveries within her art explore both healing and joy, transforming pain through layers of intuitive and figurative expression. Her life takes her from Haiti to Belgium to The Bahamas where she lives and works with her husband and family. A selection of essays, quotes, and poems about the artist's bodies of work showcased in the book is also included by notable writers, art historians, curators, artists, friends, and critics. Published Fall 2019. Hard copies of the book are available at National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (Mixed Media shop), and Currents art space at BahaMar Resort, Nassau, Bahamas.
POTO MITAN is Artist Chantal Bethel's journey of prayer and hope for the healing of Haiti — the land of her birth and the site of so much devastation and loss in the January 2010 earthquake. The art exhibition chronicled here is dedicated to the victims of that tragic event, and explores connections between the main aspects of Haiti's spiritual universe—the Catholic and the Vodou—a religion born of African heritage that is often dismissed by a skeptical world as harmful superstition. A lifelong Christian, Bethel uses her artistic license to create a sacred space of prayer—searching for shared roots of hope and spirit, she invites viewers to a deeper embracing of both our differences and even greater similarities as divinely human beings. Poto Mitan is a Creole word for the center pole (or peristyle) of a Vodou temple. In these riveting, heartfelt, and engaging artworks, Poto Mitan is the place where Heaven meets Earth: a healing place. Published December 2011. To purchase, click book cover photo.