Walead Beshty
Encyclopedia
Walead Beshty is a Los Angeles-based photographer.
Beshty earned a Bachelor of Arts
from Bard College
in 1999, and a Master of Fine Arts
from Yale University
School of Art in 2002. His first solo exhibition debuted in New York in 2004 where he "quickly captured the attention of the international art world with his probing meditations on political and social conditions."
s that he created in 2006. Each photogram was titled Picture Made by My Hand with the Assistance of Light, 2006, and reviews compared the series to the experimental photography of Man Ray
and László Moholy-Nagy
.
Many consider his artwork or photography to be abstract, but he objects, “insisting instead on their material inscription of the structural conditions and possibilities of the medium.” Beshty’s artwork makes the viewer question the possibilities of photography and its relationship with the current world we live in. Beshty currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is represented by Wallspace Gallery, NYC.
Beshty has developed and discovered an interesting style of photography purely by accident. One day, after returning from traveling abroad, Beshty developed unexposed rolls of film. He expected to see images he had taken during his trip, but was surprised to find that his developed film had strange lines and color on it. The film had been unintentionally exposed when the unexposed film had been sent through an airport X-ray machine. The film shows the basic part of the photographic process after the chemical emulsion is changed after exposure to radiation. Beshty believed these photographs share a relationship with the social and political world. These photos represent the current social and political state of the world after the events of 9/11. Due to the post-9/11 security measures at airports, the photographs are literally altered. He believed these photos could be taken as a portrait of the current security regulations with traces of his travels implanted into the photograph. Since this strange discovery, Beshty has continued to use this method and experiment with different ways of exposing film.
"Legibility on Color Backgrounds," exhibited in Washington D.C. in 2009 and showcased some of his colorful photographs and odd FedEx glass sculptures. He repeats the FedEx glass theme in his gallery exhibition of “Passages,” an exhibition in Los Angeles, California. In this exhibit, the floors were covered with mirrored glass which cracked as people walked across the floor. He also included photographs, which were created with his signature photographic exposure methods, on the walls of this installation.
List of Exhibitions:
2009
"Popular Mechanics", Wallspace, New York, NY
"Production Stills," Thomas Dane, London, England
"Legibility on Color Backgrounds," Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC,/br>
"Pulleys, Cogwheels, Mirrors, and Windows," University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
"Passages" LAXART, Los Angeles, CA
2008
"Industrial Pictures", Gallerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
"Science Concrete", China Art Objects Galleries/Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2007
"The Grey Cloth", Das Institut im Glaspavillon/Gallerie Meerrettich, Berlin, Germany
"Meanwhile, in Baghdad", The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL
2006
"The Maker and the Model", Wallspace, New York, NY
"Hammer Project: Walead Beshty, EMBASSY! (a dismal science waiting room)", Armand Hammer
Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Including Film Screening, "24 hour Armageddon: A Cold War Slumber Party", a 24 hour film screening of Disaster Films,
2005
"Parks, Hotels & Palaces", China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles, CA
2004
"The Body-Body Problem", Wallspace, New York, NY
"The Phenomenology of Shopping and Dead Malls",--curated by Bob Nickas, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY
2002
Yale University
School of Art, New Haven, CT
Beshty earned a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
in 1999, and a Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
School of Art in 2002. His first solo exhibition debuted in New York in 2004 where he "quickly captured the attention of the international art world with his probing meditations on political and social conditions."
Photography and techniques
Beshty is known for a series of eleven photogramPhotogram
A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used...
s that he created in 2006. Each photogram was titled Picture Made by My Hand with the Assistance of Light, 2006, and reviews compared the series to the experimental photography of Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
and László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts.-Early life:...
.
Many consider his artwork or photography to be abstract, but he objects, “insisting instead on their material inscription of the structural conditions and possibilities of the medium.” Beshty’s artwork makes the viewer question the possibilities of photography and its relationship with the current world we live in. Beshty currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is represented by Wallspace Gallery, NYC.
Beshty has developed and discovered an interesting style of photography purely by accident. One day, after returning from traveling abroad, Beshty developed unexposed rolls of film. He expected to see images he had taken during his trip, but was surprised to find that his developed film had strange lines and color on it. The film had been unintentionally exposed when the unexposed film had been sent through an airport X-ray machine. The film shows the basic part of the photographic process after the chemical emulsion is changed after exposure to radiation. Beshty believed these photographs share a relationship with the social and political world. These photos represent the current social and political state of the world after the events of 9/11. Due to the post-9/11 security measures at airports, the photographs are literally altered. He believed these photos could be taken as a portrait of the current security regulations with traces of his travels implanted into the photograph. Since this strange discovery, Beshty has continued to use this method and experiment with different ways of exposing film.
Sculpture
He also creates sculptural forms of his photographs. These sculptures represent his fascination “both the idea of ‘photographic’ indexicality and the strange non-spaces that populate the hyper-connected world that we inhabit.” He is particularly interested in shipping companies, specifically FedEx, and their efficiency and capability of delivering objects around the world. Beshty constructs glass vitrines that are the exact dimensions of a FedEx box, and he then places the glass boxes into a FedEx box and ships it to the exhibition site. The glass sculptures then show the wear and tear of its travels through “space and time.” This cracked surface is supposed to represent a record of the sculpture’s “hidden life” as though the sculpture were an exposure of a photograph. The FedEx boxes the sculpture is delivered in then becomes the base for the artwork. Beshty then gives the sculptures a title which consists of a record of the journey the box took to arrive at the exhibition.Exhibitions
Description:"Legibility on Color Backgrounds," exhibited in Washington D.C. in 2009 and showcased some of his colorful photographs and odd FedEx glass sculptures. He repeats the FedEx glass theme in his gallery exhibition of “Passages,” an exhibition in Los Angeles, California. In this exhibit, the floors were covered with mirrored glass which cracked as people walked across the floor. He also included photographs, which were created with his signature photographic exposure methods, on the walls of this installation.
List of Exhibitions:
2009
"Popular Mechanics", Wallspace, New York, NY
"Production Stills," Thomas Dane, London, England
"Legibility on Color Backgrounds," Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC,/br>
"Pulleys, Cogwheels, Mirrors, and Windows," University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
"Passages" LAXART, Los Angeles, CA
2008
"Industrial Pictures", Gallerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
"Science Concrete", China Art Objects Galleries/Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2007
"The Grey Cloth", Das Institut im Glaspavillon/Gallerie Meerrettich, Berlin, Germany
"Meanwhile, in Baghdad", The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL
2006
"The Maker and the Model", Wallspace, New York, NY
"Hammer Project: Walead Beshty, EMBASSY! (a dismal science waiting room)", Armand Hammer
Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Including Film Screening, "24 hour Armageddon: A Cold War Slumber Party", a 24 hour film screening of Disaster Films,
2005
"Parks, Hotels & Palaces", China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles, CA
2004
"The Body-Body Problem", Wallspace, New York, NY
"The Phenomenology of Shopping and Dead Malls",--curated by Bob Nickas, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY
2002
Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
School of Art, New Haven, CT