How to Live the Life of Your Most Vivid Technicolor Dreams:
Meet Jared Betts, Moncton Artist
What does it look like to bet on yourself so completely that you end up showing in Tokyo, Paris, London, and Iceland: all from a studio in downtown Moncton? That's the Jared Betts story.
Jared Betts is one of New Brunswick's most celebrated visual artists. Born in Moncton in 1983, he is a neo-abstract expressionist whose large-scale, gestural paintings have been shown in over 150 exhibitions across Canada and internationally. His work is held in private and corporate collections in Paris, California, China, Australia, and Iceland. And he does it all from a studio at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre in the heart of downtown Moncton.
A Moncton Kid Who Went Everywhere
Jared earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University in 2010 and has never stopped moving since. Artist residencies in Iceland, Ireland, Costa Rica, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Exhibitions at the National Gallery of Costa Rica, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Tokyo International Art Fair, and the London International Art Fair. Eleven ArtsNB grants. A 100-foot mural in Halifax.
And through it all, Moncton has remained home. His butterfly panels are permanently installed on the banks of the Petitcodiac River as part of the Images Rémanentes public art project: a collaboration involving 13 contemporary artists that transformed Moncton's downtown landscape. If you've walked the Riverfront Trail, you've seen Jared's work.
What the Creative Life Actually Looks Like
This conversation goes beyond the resume. Jared talks honestly about what it means to choose a creative life: the discipline, the doubt, and the deep conviction that art is not a luxury but a necessity. In his words: "Without art there would be no culture. Even before we learn to speak we are creating art with crayons, making marks, exploring self expression."
He also talks about Moncton: what it means to build something here, why the community has surprised him, and how a city that doesn't always get enough credit is producing world-class creative talent.
What You'll Take Away from This Episode
What it actually takes to build a creative career: the unglamorous parts and the extraordinary ones
How Jared thinks about risk, reinvention, and betting on your own vision
Why Moncton is a more remarkable creative city than most people realize
The story behind the permanent public art installations on the Petitcodiac Riverfront
About Jared Betts
Jared Betts is a Moncton-born neo-abstract expressionist painter and recipient of eleven ArtsNB grants. He has exhibited in over 150 exhibitions across Canada, Paris, Tokyo, New York, London, Iceland, Germany, and Costa Rica. His work is included in numerous private and corporate collections internationally. He works out of a studio at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre in downtown Moncton, New Brunswick.
Follow Jared on Instagram: @jaredbetts Visit: jaredbetts.com
Meet Me in Moncton is hosted by Natalie Davison, team lead at Meet Me in Moncton Real Estate and a REALTOR® with 21 years of experience.