Becky Beasley

Becky Beasley (b. 1975) is an artist who lives and works in Hastings, England. Beasley’s “sculptures and photographs, as mute and minimal as they appear, unexpectedly open onto literary worlds.”(Christy Lange, Frieze Focus). Beasley produces objects, photographs and texts which are typically informed by a deep engagement with literature — specifically in the past ten years certain writings of William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Bernard Malamud and Thomas Bernhard— and historical research. She is interested in the ethics of dialogue and how to inhabit the spaces, works and lives of others in tandem with ones own through art. Editor Alessio Ascari once described her works as ‘mental objects’, the essential ambiguity of the word ‘mental’ here allowing for both the conceptual and the instinctual attitudes which are bound intensely into the center of her practice. Her practice is also concerned with spatial experience, in particularly the interior. She has developed a practice which explores the image and the limits of language. Through an abstracted grammar of the everyday, she sources personal experiences and literary references for moments of complexity and ambiguity.

Academic qualifications

• 2002 MA Fine Art (Photography), Royal College of Art, London 
• 1999 BA (1st Class) Fine Art/Art History, Goldsmiths College, London 
• 1995 Foundation Art and Design, Winchester School of Art, Winchester

Professional projects

Beasley’s work has been featured in solo exhibition internationally including, Tate Britain, Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (live work), Spike Island, Leeds City Art Gallery, Towner Art Gallery, 80WSE (Steinhardt, NYU) New York, South London Gallery (live work) and SKUC Gallery, Ljubljana. Group exhibition participation includes Bluecoat, Liverpool; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Kunstverein Munich and La Carte D’Après Nature, National Museums Monaco (Touring to Matthew Marks, New York), as well as three Arts Council Collection touring exhibitions, In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy, curated by Elizabeth Price; British Art Show 7: In The Days of the Comet and Structure and Material (with Claire Barclay and Karla Black). She is represented by Plan B Gallery, Berlin and Francesca Minini, Milan.

Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Artforum, Art Monthly, Frieze, Art Review and Flash Art International. Beasley was on the ICA Artist’s Advisory Committee in 2012 and was nominated for the Max Mara Prize in 2009. She has had five Paul Hamlyn Nominations.

Featured publications

• Two Plants in Dip | Artists Book | Artist's Research Centre: Writers Programme 2017/18, Curated by Ben Roberts with Southend Galleries, Museums & Libraries
• Being Silence: In Conversation with Becky Beasley | www.fourbythreemagazine.com
• beckybeasley.com
• francescaminini.it

Publications and research outputs

Show/Exhibition

Beasley, Becky. 2021. H. S. P. (or Promising Mid-career Woman). In: "H. S. P. (or Promising Mid-career Woman)", Galeria Plan B, Berlin, Germany, 27 November 2021 - 5 February 2022.

Beasley, Becky. 2018. Depressive Alcoholic Mother. In: "Depressive Alcoholic Mother", Plan B Gallery, Germany, 27 April - 9 June 2018.

Beasley, Becky. 2017. A Gentle Man. In: "A Gentle Man", 80WSE Gallery, Steinhart, NYU, United States, 14 June -19 August 2017.

Artist's Book

Beasley, Becky. 2018. Two Plants in Dip.

Conference or Workshop Item

Beasley, Becky. 2023. 'BOOKS & VOICES A Guest Artist Lecture Talk by Becky Beasley'. In: FESTIVAL OF BOOKS & VOICES. PUBLICS, Helsinki, Finland 25 November 2023.

Beasley, Becky. 2022. 'Disability in British Art research group: Becky Beasley'. In: Disability in British Art research group. Disability Arts Online (Online Meeting), United Kingdom 16 June 2022.