Slow Stories
Paintings by Bette A. and Brian Eno
Opening reception: Saturday, September 19, 2026, 6–9 p.m.
September 19 - October 25, 2026
North Figueroa Bookshop, Los Angeles
6040 N. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Hours: Daily, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
North Figueroa Bookshop and Unnamed Press present Slow Stories: Paintings by Bette A. and Brian Eno, an exhibition bringing together approximately 325 works from a collaborative series of 444 original, signed, and numbered paintings. The exhibition opens Saturday, September 19, from 6–9 p.m. and remains on view through October 25.
Coinciding with the exhibition announcement, Unnamed Press has launched an online gallery of the available paintings. Visitors can now browse the series and choose the specific work they would like to accompany their edition at unnamedpress.com/slow-stories-bette-a-brian-eno
At North Figueroa Bookshop, the paintings will be installed in a continuous five-row grid, creating an extended visual field throughout the space. An intimate listening and reading area will offer visitors a place to sit with 2 Slow Stories, while a nearby display will present the book, vinyl recording, and one original painting together.
The paintings were not conceived as isolated compositions. Bette and Brian worked across a field of hundreds of canvas-board panels, establishing structured conditions and then allowing chance, layering, interruption, mistakes, and mutual response to redirect the work. A panel remained within this larger field until the artists recognized it as complete in its own right and pulled it aside. As Eno recalls, “We were not really working on individual paintings. We were working on a whole field of paintings.”
This method reduced the pressure on any single canvas and made room for temporary failure and unexpected resolution. As Bette describes the process, “You dare to let the material speak to you.” One artist might alter, rotate, repair, or recognize a possibility in the other’s gesture. Some works stopped after only a few lines and a shadow; others accumulated complex grids, veils, forests, mountains, floating ovals, and architectural fragments. Installed together, the paintings recover something of the larger visual environment from which each individual painting emerged.
The series developed alongside Bette A.’s 2026 short-story collection Slow Stories. Written and rewritten over twenty years, the stories became shorter as explanatory detail and predetermined meaning fell away. They unfold through imaginary villages, alternate histories, impossible houses, and worlds that are vivid without being fully described.
The collaboration also extends into the limited vinyl recording 2 Slow Stories, featuring Bette reading “The Endless House” and “The Other Village” within ambient compositions by Brian Eno. Long intervals of music separate the spoken sentences, giving listeners time to construct landscapes and associations only partially supplied by the words.
The paintings establish a related openness without illustrating particular scenes from the stories or translating the music. The record unfolds through duration; the exhibition offers another experience of time, allowing visitors to scan the field, choose their own sequence, return to individual panels, and discover relationships among repeated forms. Across language, sound, silence, and image, the project leaves space for the audience to become creatively active.
Limited to 444 editions, the complete Slow Stories edition is priced at $444 and includes one unique 20 × 20 cm painting on canvas board, signed and numbered by both artists; Bette A.’s jacketed hardcover Slow Stories; and the limited pressing of 2 Slow Stories on 12-inch white vinyl in a gatefold jacket. The two recordings have not been released digitally and are exclusive to this pressing.
The artists’ proceeds from each edition support the Heroines! Movement, a global storytelling movement centered on women role models and co-founded by Bette A., and EarthPercent, which directs support from the music industry toward organizations responding to the climate emergency and was co-founded by Brian Eno.
ABOUT BETTE A.
Bette A. is an Amsterdam-born artist and writer. She studied Image and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Oxford University. Writing in English and Dutch, she is the author of the novels Rus Like Everyone Else and What’s Mine. Her work also encompasses short stories, drawing, teaching, and collaborative social projects. In 2019, she co-founded TRQSE, a network of artists and scientists working together on social projects. With Brian Eno, she coauthored What Art Does.
ABOUT BRIAN ENO
Brian Eno is an artist, musician, and producer whose work spans recorded sound, visual art, and activism. After studying art at Ipswich and Winchester art colleges, he joined Roxy Music and went on to work with artists including David Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Grace Jones, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd, Coldplay, and Fred again.. His visual art has been presented internationally in more than 200 venues. He co-founded the climate charity EarthPercent and the artist-led political initiative HardArt and is coauthor, with Bette A., of What Art Does.
EXHIBITION INFORMATION
Opening reception: Saturday, September 19, 2026, 6–9 p.m.
Exhibition dates: September 19–October 25, 2026
Location: North Figueroa Bookshop,
6040 N. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Hours: Daily, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
Admission: Free
Exhibition info: northfigbookshop.com/gallery
Browse and select a painting:
unnamedpress.com/slow-stories-bette-a-brian-eno
PRESS INQUIRIES AND INFORMATION
Hoda Mallone hoda@unnamedpress.com
ARTWORK AND SALES INQUIRIES
Chris Heiser chris@unnamedpress.com
Mathew Timmons insertpress@gmail.com
Exhibition Produced by Mathew Timmons of Insert Press MountArt