Strike Slip
May - August 2013
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art
Curated by Hesse McGraw
Omaha, NE
Ink on Bleached Paper
12 FT x 22 FT x 2 IN
“Beck creates singular spaces and environments that entwine evocatively repurposed mass accumulations of building materials with the architecture of the gallery to build crystalline emotional resonances. !e installation process for this exhibition will continue throughout its duration — a progression that forms a critical aspect of the work.
With materials including wood flooring, newsprint rolls, black rubber roofing, Hydrocal plaster, PVC pipe and rough framing lumber, Beck has generated an uncertain, shifting terrain that alludes to geologic and architectural forces, and reifies both the history of the building and its site. Beck’s process is a hybrid of his dual history working as an architect and a printmaker. Here, the intentional line holds equal weight to generative and accidental marks. Beck has both expanded the act of printmaking to the scale of the building, and broken architecture down to its core parts. There is rich detail in the layers of his work — gashed paper rolls, seared wood, charred and flayed skins, chalky strata and warbling light casts.”
- Hesse McGraw
