Future Nostalgia by Erica Beyea

Artist Statement: Future Nostalgia

Nostalgia has been a long-running theme in my work. I’ve lived away from "home" since 2001. I grew up in New Brunswick, lived in Toronto for 17 years, then in southern Spain for 5, and then back in NB since 2022. This has led to a rather fractured idea of home and where I am from at my core.

For this series, I’ve dug deeper into the concept of Nostalgia, its wider history, and my personal history with the feeling. Swiss doctor Johanes Hofer first coined the term in 1688 from two Greek words: nostos (home) and algos (pain). So its roots were as a deadly pain and disease.

Now, nostalgia is used as a marketing strategy, hearkening back to happier times, while still being viewed as a kind of weakness.

My own view on nostalgia is different. I’ve never seen nostalgia as a desire to return to the past, but rather a way of examining the past: a way to appreciate what was and identify which parts of that we can take into our future. The present is often experienced through the lens of both past and present: you’re making memories, you’re comparing what was, and you’re dreaming of what’s next. In this sense, there’s a form of nostalgia that’s anticipatory in nature: as I’m in the present, experiencing things, I’m already anticipating the things I’ll be nostalgic about in the future.

As I prepare for my next move to the north of Spain later this year, I’m revisiting my past and present as though from the future. I can already see how I will see this time period after it’s gone. I’ll miss the fresh air and the natural beauty of New Brunswick.

For some, nostalgia can seem sad or bittersweet. But for me, I get to keep and treasure these memories no matter where I go. Time, experience, and emotion are always blended together so thoroughly that objectivity is impossible.

The figures within this collection of paintings are of times and physical spaces very particular to me, my history, and, by extension, my future: a landmark from my childhood, the intensity of New Brunswick fall colours experienced with my pup, a wistful look across water to what is ahead. Each image is a moment infused with the variety of feelings mined from the past, present, and future.

As nostalgia and hope colour all moments, I enjoy the effort of trying to capture it all with colour, light, and form on canvas. 

Erica Beyea thanks ArtsNB for their support in the creation of this exhibition. 

Biography

Erica Beyea studied Fine Arts at the Ontario College of Art & Design, and graduated from NSCAD University in 2006, with a BFA in Fine Arts, with honours. In 2014, she founded the non-profit organization Girls’ Art League in Toronto.  After years of engagement in Toronto’s visual arts community, she moved to Granada, Spain.  In Spain, she exhibited in Granada, Cadiz, and Malaga.

She returned to Canada in 2022, to live in New Brunswick. Since returning she has shown at Sunbury Shores (St. Andrew's, NB), The Aberdeen Cultural Centre (Moncton, NB), The Guild (Charlottetown, PEI), as well as commercial galleries in Toronto, Ottawa, and New Brunswick. Her upcoming solo show at the Capitol Theatre (Moncton, NB) will be on show from August to October, 2025.

A true lover of colour and light, Beyea works in oil paint on canvas. Daily observations and moments take on deeper meaning as she explores time, place, and our ever-changing relationships to them.