Reactions & Responses
Black Isle Abstract
A group exhibition, featuring the work of Beti Bricelj, Ian Barr and Alex Dunn.


Ian Barr
Ian Barr is a painter and sculptor, born in Glasgow and a graduate of Glasgow School of Art. He lives and works on The Black Isle. After graduating in the late sixties, he taught in schools and universities in Scotland and the USA. His work is represented in public and private collections both in the UK and abroad. Ian Barr was a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland from 2005 until 2013.
His working process has been gradually changing, becoming less gestural and more formally structured. Most of Ian’s works, although abstract, are responses,artistic and emotional, to objects, places and
memories. The intention is to create objects that provide visual starting points which allow the viewer to see, not just with the eyes but with the mind, connections and resonances with their own experience. Although the works have their conception in places and objects and memories they are in no way replicating these sources. They are objects in their own right, not representations of things in the world.
Creating each work is a long and frustrating business of making something out of nothing, a shape-shifting process with an ever-changing framework of something that only exists as a possibility, an idea inside the artist’s head.




Beti Bricelj
Beti Bricelj is a Slovenian visual artist born in 1974 in Postojna. In 2000 she graduated from Fine Arts on Arthouse – College of Visual Arts in Ljubljana. After completing her studies she continued her education in Australia (1998/99).
Invited to numerous Art Symposium, Bricelj has presented work for independent and joint exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad (Australia, Europe and including the renowned Museum of Geometric and MADI Art in Dallas Texas, USA). Her work is published in various international catalogues and books of contemporary art.
​
Since 2002 Bricelj has been a member of the Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies and since 2020 a member of international artists group The Drawing Collective. For several months every year she lives in Cromarty, where in 2017 she formed Black Isle Abstract with Ian Barr and Alex Dunn.
Instagram: @beti.bricelj


Alex Dunn
Born in Glasgow. When he was seven he and his family moved to Aultbea, where his father was the baker and his mother started a small pottery. Educated at Bualnaluib Primary School, Dingwall and Fortrose Academies, and Aberdeen University.
Four members of his family went to art school so in an act of rebellion he didn't; nevertheless he started painting when he was at university, and hasn't stopped since. His pictures have been in exhibitions and galleries throughout the UK, and also in Germany and Slovenia. He is also a founder and director of Ardival Harps and lives in Strathpeffer.



