Lisa Beck

Lisa Beck’s work is driven by her preoccupations and obsessions concerning the relationship of the particular and the universal. For Beck, “the particular” is a shorthand for the observable aspects of reality, such as the landscape and our bodies. “The universal” is a shorthand for things that are too vast or too tiny for us to grasp completely, like space and atomic physics, which become a kind of abstraction. Her most prevalent motif has been the circle in all its forms and references: atoms, solids, voids, cells, selves, stars, specificity, and eternity. The artist’s work is defined by the combination of opposing but related visual phenomena like positive and negative, pattern and randomness, flatness and depth, referential and abstract imagery. Much of her work involves the integration of these opposites, emphasizing their interaction, rather than the divide.

Balancing Act is comprised of paintings that explore the intersection of these divides; the assumed line between what is concrete and abstract, imagined and representational. Beck is careful to not lean too far into one or the other of these oppositional pulls, but rather intertwines them, showing that the truth of these forces lie in both and neither.

Lisa Beck (b. 1958 in New York City) is a multi-media artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1980 and has been the recipient of several awards, residencies, and fellowships, including the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program Studio Residency (2012-2013), the Yaddo Residency (2021), and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (2021). Beck’s work is driven by her preoccupations and obsessions concerning the relationship of the particular and the universal. For Beck, “the particular” is a shorthand for the observable aspects of reality (the landscape, our bodies). “The universal” is a shorthand for things that are too vast or too tiny for us to grasp completely (space, atomic physics) which necessarily become a kind of abstraction. Her most prevalent motif has been the circle in all its forms and references: atoms, solids, voids, cells, selves, stars, specificity, and eternity. Beck’s work is defined by the combination of opposing but related visual phenomena like positive and negative, pattern and randomness, flatness and depth, referential and abstract imagery. Much of her work involves the integration of these opposites, emphasizing their interaction, rather than the divide. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in significant public collections such as the Tang Teaching Museum of Skidmore College, Maramotti Collection, Italy, FRAC pays de la Loire, France, Museé des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, JP Morgan Chase, Nestlé, and many private collections around the world.