KATE BECK
b. 1956, Maine, United States
SOLO Exhibitions
2023 Daphne: art Gallery and Advisory, Litchfield, CT
2015 Masters Projects, Kate Beck,New Paintings, Galapagos Art Bldg, Brooklyn, NY
2014 Masters & Pelavin, Kate Beck, New York, NY
2013 ICON Contemporary Art, Drawing Black + White, Kate Beck, Brunswick, ME
ParisCONCRET, Accumulations ,Paris, FRAN
2011 Kunst-Element, Poëma, Waalre, NETH
ICON Contemporary Art, New Work Kate Beck, Brunswick, ME
2010 Masters & Pelavin, Conditions of Existence, New York, NY
2009 ICON Contemporary Art, Drawing Now, Brunswick, ME
Two + Three Person Exhibitions
2022 Daphne: art Gallery and Advisory, Unconventional Landscape, Litchfield, CT
2019 Space Gallery, Small Works, Denver, CO
2014 Masters Projects, at Galapagos Art Bldg, Brooklyn, NY
2012 ICON Contemporary Art, Liminal Thinking, Brunswick, ME
2011 Zeitgeist, Barely There, Nashville, TN
2007 Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Daphne: art Gallery and Advisory, Put Together, Litchfield, CT
2024 Maine Media College, Faculty Exhibition, Rockland, ME
2023 Daphne: art Gallery and Advisory, Thought Forms, Litchfield, CT
2022 Ft. Andross,Katherine Bradford’s Dance Hall Show, Brunswick, ME
2019 Space Gallery, Drawings, Denver, CO
Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst, Painting Black, Soest, GER
Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst, Painting Black, Vienna, AUST
2018 Newlyn Gallery + Exchange, curated by Ivo Ringe, Cornwall, GRBR
ENGINE, curator Debra Whitney, Portland, ME
Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst, Soest, GER
Krakow Witkin Gallery, Annual Aids Collectors Benefit, Boston, MA
SEPTEMBER gallery, Post Election, Hudson, NY
2016 Space Gallery, Denver, CO
Brito.Rodriguez Arquitectura, Art & Architecture, Lisboa, PORT
SEPTEMBER gallery, Open, Hudson, NY
2015 Zeitgeist, Nashville, TN
2014 Masters & Pelavin, Field Guide to Getting Lost, New York, NY
2013 Portland Museum of Art, PieceWorks Invitational Biennial, Portland, ME
Gorcums Museum, Zwart & Wit/ Black & White, curated by Piet Augustijn, Gorinchem, NETH
PIT Project Initiative, Great Little Graphic Arts Show, Tilburg, NETH
Space Gallery, Denver, CO
ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME
2012 d’Art Reductif, LaBiennale Internationale d'art Non Objectif,curated by Roland Orépük, Grenoble, FRAN
ParisCONCRET, Paris, FRAN
Krakow Witkin Gallery, Collectors Benefit, Boston, MA
2011 ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME
Kent State University Gallery, Barely There, OH
Ogunquit Museum of American Art, About Drawing, Ogunquit, ME
Masters + Pelavin Gallery, New York, NY
2010 ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME
New Mexico Museum of Art, Art on the Edge, Santa Fe, NM
Krakow Witkin Gallery, Collectors Benefit, Boston, MA
The Cambridge School of Weston, Fuzzy Logic, Weston, MA
2009 Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland, ME
Metro Pictures Gallery, Postcards from the Edge, New York, NY
American Contemporary Gallery, Annapolis, MD
2008 OK Harris Works of Art, No Chromophobia!, New York, NY
Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Biennial, Rockport, ME
Whitney Art Works, Portland, ME
Museum of West Bohemia, International Biennial of Drawing, Pilsen, CZE
University of Pennsylvania, New Faces in Contemporary Art Scene, Philadelphia, PA
2007 James Cohan Gallery,Postcards from the Edge, New York, NY
New Hampshire Institute of Art, Biennial, Manchester, NH
Krakow Witkin Gallery, Collectors Benefit, Boston, MA
2006 Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Postcards from the Edge, New York, NY
Holyoke Gallery, Painting, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2005 Aidekman Arts Center,Painting, Tufts University, Boston, MA
2004 Brent Sikkema, Postcards from the Edge, New York, NY
2003 University of New Hampshire, Painting, Durham, NH
2001 Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, AZ
Public Collections
2019 CARL-JÜRGEN SCHROTH Collection, Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest, GER
2013 Santa Fe Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
2011 Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME
2001 Kent State University Art Gallery, OH
2010 New York Trust for Public Space, NY, NY
2001 Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, AZ
Private Client Collections Globally
Awards, Grants & Fellowships
2021 Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Covid-19 Artist Relief Fund Grant
2018 Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation Support Grant, New York, NY
2018 Newlyn Gallery & Exchange, Cornwall, GRBR
2015 The Reside Residency, London, GRBR
2012 BAU Institute, Otranto, ITLY
2010 BAU Institute, New York, NY
2008 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2013 Santa Fe Museum of Contemporary Art, Purchase Award, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Oakes Creek Ranch, Master Printmakers with Jack Craft, Clarendon, TX
2001 Mesa Contemporary Arts, Purchase Award, Mesa, AZ
Public Commissions
2017 Courthouse Press Bldg 9, Architectural Renovation, Boston, MA
2012 The Abingdon, Renovation, 2Michaels Design, New York, NY
2011 West Village Restoration Project, Flank Architects, NY
2010 Mulberry Street Renovation Project, Flank Architects, New York, NY
Private Client Commissions Globally
Collaborative Projects
2023 American Musical and Drama Academy (AMDA), with Tracy Silver , Los Angeles, LA
2022 Chicago School of Fine Arts, Take All of Me, with Tracey Franklin, Chicago, IL
2015 Brito.Rodriguez Arquitectura, Fine Art & Architecture, Lisboa, PORT
2014 Masters & Pelavin, Debra Wing Sproul performance with Anxieties and Alienations, New York, NY
2013 Portland Museum of Art, Berg, Jones & Sarvis performance with Modern Structure:100 Drawings,100 Gestures, Portland, ME
2013 PIT Project Initiative, Light Painting, with Linda Arts, Tilburg, NETH
2012 Masters & Pelavin, Ensemble et al, Ron Tucker with Anxieties and Alienations, New York, NY
2010 Peter Foolen Editions, Poëma exhibition catalogue design & publication , Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, NETH
2010 Thomas A Clark, Concret Poet, published poetic response toForgetting Air, Scotland, GRBR
Lectures + Presentations
2025 Colby College, Senior Capstone Guest Host, Professor Bradley Borthwick, Waterville, ME
2018 – 2010 Bowdoin College Visiting Guest Critique, Painting, Professor Mark Wethli, Brunswick, ME
2012 – 2002 Bowdoin College Radio, Guest Artist, The Peter Puluska Show, Brunswick, ME
2015 Brito-Rodriguez Arquitectura,Visiting Artist & Lecturer Fine Art & Architecture Global Conference, Lisboa, PORT
2014 Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Lecturer, The Question of Drawing, Ogunquit, ME
2014 Montserrat College of Art, Visiting Artist & Lecturer, Contemporary Drawing & Painting, Beverly, MA
2012 New Mexico Museum of Contemporary Art, Guest Artist and Lecturer , Art on the Edge, Santa Fe, NM
2010 Cambridge School of Weston, Lecturer, Fuzzy Logic: Contemporary Painting After a Century of Abstract Art, MA
Writing
2026-2025 Maine Political Candidate Communications Team: Dr. Nirav Shah
2026-2010 Freelance Writer, Contributing Editor. Sourced: New York Foundation for the Arts - NYFA
2026-2010 Freelance Academic Advisor, Thesis Editor + Consultant at select colleges, universities. Sourced: NYFA
2023-1980 Contributing Editor, Literary Review Writer, Poetry. Various magazines, platforms, United States
Select Academic Lectures + Seminars
2026 The President and the Constitution, with Lowell Brown, Esq., author Prosecution of President of the United States: The Constitution, Executive Power, and the Rule of Law (The Evolving American Presidency).
From Thoreau’s, Civil Disobedience, with Dr. Josph Molleur, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Cornell University.
God’s Microphones: Preachers & Saints Against Authoritarianism. with Rev. Nathan Empsell, Episcopal priest, organizer, writer + public speaker against White Christian Nationalism
2025 Composition, Politics, and the Problem of Decision Making in Latour and Serres. Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, UK. with David Webb, Professor of Philosophy at Staffordshire University.
2025 Ethics in the Storm. Rev. Luther Ott, Professor of Philosophy, Attorney, on Harvard Professor Michael J. Sandel’s book, Justice, What’s the Right Thing to Do? Immigration.
2022 Valerie Maynard: Lost and Found. Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD. with Valerie Maynard, Lesly Cossie curator.
2022 Decoloniality: The Politics of History. Columbia University, Department of Art History & Archeology, and Institute of Latin Studies, New York, NY. with Walter D. Mignolo.
2022 Donald Judd: Paintings 1959–1961. Art historian and editor Eileen Costello and Yale School of Art professor Marta Kuzma, moderated by Caitlin Murray, director of archives and programs at Judd Foundation
2022 Makeup, (Green Blouse) . Tel Aviv Museum of Art,Israel. with French portrait painter Claire Tabouret and curator Mira Lapidot
2021 New Social Environment, in Conversation with Ethiopian artist Julie Mehretu and Phong Bui. The Brooklyn Rail, New York, NY. On Mehretu’s mid-career survey exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York.
2021 In Conversation with Carrie Mae Weems. Williams College, Bennington College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, MA. Weems with current tri-college MFA writing students in conjunction with her nationwide campaign Resist Covid / Take 6!
2021 Meeting Worlds – On Okwui Enwezor's Work, New Museum, New York, NY. Webinar Series, expanding on critical themes of the late curator’s conceptualized exhibition Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, actualized by his curatorial team after his unexpected passing. with curators Naomi Beckwith, Glenn Ligon, Mark Nash, Massimiliano Gioni and artists Julie Mehretu, Malik Gaines, Theaster Gates.
2021 Seeds of Change: Beyond Settler Colonial & Racialized Ecologies, Vine Deloria, Jr. Harvard University Mahindra Humanities Center, Cambridge, MA Post-doc Roundtable Seminar: critical issues ( water, climate, food, environmental impacts), artistic expression as tool of change.
2021 I Was Becoming: A Reading and Conversation with Four Authors. MacDowell Foundation, Peterborough, NH. Rona Jaffe Award and MacDowell Fellowship recipients Julia Orringer (host), Monika Sok (A Nail the Evening Hangs On), Elif Batuman (The Idiot), and Chelsea Bieker (God Shot).
2021 Pat Steir in Conversation with Mickalene Thomas, unscripted. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. Robert Rosenblum Lecture.
2019 Sarah Oppenheimer, Periodic Function. MIT School of Architecture and Planning, Lecture. Calculated manipulation of standardized spaces + disruption of the embodied experience of spatial continuity. with Cristina Parreño Alonso, Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism.
Bibliography + Press
Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Painting Black, catalogue, Stiftung Konzeptuelle Soest, Soest, GER. December 2017
Annie Godfrey Larmon, “Good Vibrations: Kate Beck’s Abstract Minimal Drawings and Paintings Hum”, The Phoenix, Portland, ME. July 2009.
FOCA, The Museum of New Mexico Foundation, Art on the Edge,catalogue, Santa Fe, NM. March 2010
Brent Hallard, “Drawing Lines – Kate Beck”, Visual Discrepancies, Interview, Tokyo, JPN. Feb. 3, 2009
Britta Konau, “Drawing is a way of life...”, Essay, Poëma - Kate Beck, published by Peter Foolen Editions, NETH. 2012
___________, “Critical Lines”, Maine Home + Design Magazine, Architecture Issue, Portland, ME. 2011
___________, “Art Current: Graphite at ICON Contemporary”, The Free Press, Rockland, ME. August 31, 2011
Center for Maine Contemporary Art. 2008 Biennial, catalogue, Custom Museum Publishing, LLC. 2008
Daniel Kany, “Exquisite Works with Graphite and Paper,” Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, ME. September 4, 2011
___________, “…Quiet blocks of subtle gradients evolve from quiet lines…”, Modern Structure: Kate Beck, Portland Museum of Art,Portland Press Herald, October 13, 2013
___________, “Kate Beck’s elegant black abstractions…”, Maine Arts Journal. December 28, 2017
Diane Armitage, “Critical Reflections: Art on the Edge”, THE Magazine, Santa Fe, NM. May 2010
Piet Augustijn, Curator of Contemporary Art Emeritus, “The Paintings of Kate Beck,” Gorcums Museum, NETH, 2011
Fiona Robinson, “Kate Beck”, Writings on Art, London, GRBR. October 2010
Frank Eerhardt, “Kate Beck by Frank Eerhardt,” The Art Section, C4RD London, GRBR. October 2011
Gorcums Museum. Zwart & Wit/ Black & White, exhibition catalogue, NETH, 2013
Joanne Mattera, “Awash in Color: Roy G Biv & Friends”, Joanne Mattera Art Blog, New York, NY,. May 2008
Kathleen Roberts, “On the Edge”, Venue Magazine, Santa Fe North, NM. April 16, 2010
Laura Addison, “Art on the Edge of a New Decade”, El Palacio, Spring Edition, Santa Fe, NM. March 2010
Piet Augustijn, Curator of Contemporary Art Emeritus, “Kate Beck and the Potential of Line,” Peter Foolen Editions, Poëma - Kate Beck, Lecturis, Eindhoven, NETH. 2012
Maine Home + Design Magazine, Art Issue. “Kate Beck”, by Britta Konau, Portland, ME, April 2014
New Mexico Museum of Art. Art on the Edge, exhibition catalogue, FOCA, 2012
New York Magazine, “Tips & Picks: Kate Beck”, New York, NY. October 2005
Nicholas Schroeder, “More than Black and White”, The Portland Phoenix, Portland, ME. May 19, 2010,
OK Harris Press Release, “No Chromophobia”, OK Harris Works of Art, New York, NY June 2008
Peter Foolen Editions. Poëma - Kate Beck, published by, printed by Lecturis, Eindhoven, NETH. 2012
Philip Isaacson, “Kate Beck Pencil Drawings at Icon”, Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, ME. July 19, 2009
Portland Museum of Art. PieceWorks, exhibition catalogue, Custom Museum Publishing, September 2013.
Rob DeWalt, “Blurred Edges”, The New Mexican, Santa Fe, NM. April 16, 2010
Roberta Burnett, “Eyes Have It”, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, AZ. May 2001
Sharon L. Butler, “Flying Colors at OK Harris”, Two Coats of Paint. New York, NY. June 16, 2008
Shawn Hill, “Last Blast of Summer Heat”, Berkshire Fine Arts, On-line. August 2007.
Steven Alexander, “Beauty in Black & White”, Steven Alexander Journal, New York, NY. On-line. July 13, 2008
___________, “Kate Beck at Pelavin Gallery”, Steven Alexander Journal, New York, NY. November 10, 2010,
___________, “No Chromophobia at OK Harris”, Steven Alexander Journal, New York, NY. On-line. June 6, 2008
Thomas A Clark, Concret Poet, Poet Laureate, Scotland, “in the grey shoreward…”, a poem for the painter, Kate Beck, Peter Foolen Editions. Poëma - Kate Beck, published by, printed by Lecturis, Eindhoven, NETH. 2012
University of Western Bohemia. International Biennial of Drawing Pilsen 2008, exhibition catalogue, University of Western Bohemia Press, CZEC, 2008
UMVA Winter Magazine. “Lines of Thought, Kate Beck.” 2014
Education
2023 Goddard College, Master of Fine Art in Interdisciplinary Art, Painting + Critical Theory
Harvard University, Mahindra Humanities Center, post-doc roundtable seminar
Columbia University, Dept. of Art History + Archeology, Institute of Latin American Studies, post-doc roundtable seminar
1996 Maine College of Art. BFA
1978 Bennington College
1977 University of Maine, BA
Teaching
2025 - 2019 Maine Media College , International Fine Art Faculty (remote), Rockland, ME
2024 - 2018 Maine College of Art & Design, Freelance MFA Academic Thesis Advisor + Editor