From May 20 to 29, 2026, my solo exhibition Eye Candy: The Jelly Beans Series will be on view at cSPACE Marda Loop, Level 2, in Calgary, Alberta.
This Calgary abstract art exhibition brings together a group of original geometric paintings from my ongoing Jelly Beans series. Built around rounded forms, bold colour, repetition, and visual rhythm, the series explores how simple shapes can shift attention, affect mood, and change the feeling of a space.
At first glance, the works are bright, playful, and immediate. They have the visual pleasure suggested by the title Eye Candy. But beneath the colour and rounded forms, the series is also about focus, structure, and the experience of looking closely.
About Eye Candy: The Jelly Beans Series
The Jelly Beans series began with a simple visual idea: small rounded forms repeated across the canvas, each one carrying its own colour, weight, and mood.
The forms are playful and almost candy-like, which is where the title Eye Candy comes from. These paintings are meant to offer visual pleasure. They invite viewers to look, pause, and enjoy colour as an experience in itself.
But the series is not only about sweetness or play. It is also about attention.
Each shape is similar, but not identical. Each colour changes the feeling of the whole composition. A deep red can ground a painting. A pale blue can create openness. A bright green can bring energy. A soft lavender can change the pace. As the eye moves from one form to the next, the viewer begins to notice relationships, contrasts, and small moments of balance.
In that way, the paintings become a visual rhythm. They are structured, but not rigid. Joyful, but still deliberate.
Why I Created This Exhibition
I wanted this solo exhibition in Calgary to create a moment of brightness and focus within a shared public space.
Daily life often feels fast, fragmented, and overstimulating. We are pulled between information, obligations, screens, and noise. With the Jelly Beans series, I wanted to create abstract paintings that give the eye somewhere to land.
The exhibition is not about escaping the world. It is about noticing how something as simple as colour and shape can change the way we move through it.
The title Eye Candy captures the first feeling of attraction, but the work also asks viewers to stay a little longer. What begins as a bright and playful surface becomes a study in repetition, contrast, decision-making, and focus.
Geometric Abstract Paintings About Colour, Rhythm, and Joy
Colour is central to this series.
Some works are warm and energetic, with oranges, reds, yellows, and deep berry tones. Others feel cooler and more open, with blues, greens, lavenders, and pale neutrals. Across the series, colour becomes a way to create movement and emotional tone without relying on recognizable imagery.
The paintings are abstract, so they do not tell the viewer what to see. Instead, they leave room for personal interpretation. One person may see sweetness and nostalgia. Another may notice structure and order. Someone else may respond to the feeling created by a specific colour combination.
That openness is important to my work. I want the paintings to be accessible at first glance, but still rewarding over time.
The Balance Between Playfulness and Structure
Although the Jelly Beans paintings have a playful quality, they are carefully constructed.
The repeated rounded forms create a pattern, but the colour choices keep the paintings from feeling mechanical. Each composition depends on balance: warm against cool, bright against muted, soft against bold, familiar against unexpected.
This relationship between playfulness and structure appears often in my art practice. I am drawn to clean shapes, strong compositions, and hard-edge geometry because they make choices visible. Every line, colour, and form has to hold its place.
In the Jelly Beans series, that structure supports the joy of the work rather than limiting it. The result is a group of geometric abstract paintings that feel lively, direct, and optimistic, while still being grounded in composition and restraint.
Showing Contemporary Abstract Art at cSPACE Marda Loop
Showing this work at cSPACE Marda Loop is meaningful because the building is a creative public space in Calgary. It is not a traditional gallery where people only arrive with the intention of seeing art. Visitors may encounter the exhibition while attending a class, meeting someone, working in the building, or simply passing through.
That kind of encounter matters to me.
The Jelly Beans series works well in a public setting because it is immediate and inviting. The paintings can catch someone from a distance, then reward closer looking. They can add colour and energy to the space, while also offering a moment of focus within a busy day.
Original Acrylic Paintings from the Jelly Beans Series
The exhibition includes both larger Jelly Beans paintings and smaller works from the Mini Jelly Beans group. Together, they show how the same visual language can shift across scale.
The larger works create a strong presence in the exhibition space. They allow the viewer to experience colour and repetition physically, across a wider field of vision. The smaller works are more intimate. They invite close looking and show how much variation can happen within a compact format.
Across the series, the rounded forms suggest softness, sweetness, and movement, while the structured arrangement gives the work clarity. This contrast is what gives the paintings their energy. They are bright, but not chaotic. Ordered, but not cold. Playful, but not random.
What I Hope Viewers Take Away
I hope viewers leave the exhibition with a sense of colour as something active.
Colour can lift a room, shift a mood, and create a moment of attention. It can be joyful without being simple. It can be playful without being superficial.
Eye Candy: The Jelly Beans Series is an invitation to look closely at colour, rhythm, and repetition, and to notice how abstract art can change the feeling of a space.
Exhibition Details
Eye Candy: The Jelly Beans Series
Solo Exhibition by Elena Alexander
Dates: May 20 to 29, 2026
Location: cSPACE Marda Loop, Level 2
Address: 1721 29 Ave SW, Calgary, AB
Hours: 8 AM to 8 PM
Closed: Sundays
Admission: Free
The exhibition is open for self-guided viewing during building hours. For a personalized walkthrough, please contact Elena directly.