Biography

Stephanie Beck earned an M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a Post-Baccalaureate certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a B.A. in Art History from the University of Virginia. Stephanie has presented a solo exhibition at the Philadelphia International Airport, and two-person exhibitions at Florida State College, Jacksonville, FL and Musée d’art moderne André Malraux, Le Havre, France. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; International Print Center, New York, NY; and Cite de l’architecture et du patrimonie, Paris, France, among others.  Stephanie has participated in various artist residencies including an exchange program in Le Havre, France, the Artist Studios program at the Museum of Arts and Design, and residencies at the Center for Book Arts and Triangle Arts in New York, NY. She also has collaborated on set and prop design with New York-based dance company, Racoco Productions.  Stephanie currently lives in Queens, NY and is a resident artist at ChaShaMa’s Space to Create in Brooklyn, NY. 

To be added to her mailing list or contact her for pricing, please email stephanie@stephaniebeck.org.

artist statement

I create sculptural “drawings” in wood that abstractly trace lines of organic and architectural forms. The work exists in two groups: linear Wall Drawings and compact Mosaics. The Wall Drawings speak of weight, balance, tension, and fragility, echoing our precarious environmental and social situations. Constructed from multiple short lengths of wood hinged together with wooden pegs, the lines curve into shapes and drape along the floor, creating unique gestures as they pull towards the earth. The segmented lines are awkwardly elegant, emphasizing the vulnerability and beauty of nature and the body. The spareness of the work creates a space for contemplation and interpretation.

The Mosaics reference architectural forms and patterns found in nature, combining a sense of the monumental and the intimate. They are inspired by the variations in plywood edge patterns, which are reminiscent of tree rings and the markings of different types of birds. The overall shapes draw from architectural and design history, suggesting arched doorways, brick walls, opaque mirrors, or buildings from above. They collapse surface and space, alternately implying a frontal or overhead view of familiar structures, although never resolving into one interpretation.

After over ten years of working with paper, I began working with wood in 2019 to engage with a weightier, more grounded material. This material change grew from the stronger pull of gravity on my body as I age, a more settled lifestyle after years of moving and traveling, and a greater reverence for the fragility of nature and humanity as we bring our world into self-created crises.

My past work in paper examined the idea of impermanence within the seemingly static architecture in which we live. The earliest pieces focused on patterns of settlement in imagined maps. The buildings on the maps then grew into three-dimensional forms, inspired by the architecture around me. I placed these familiar structures in different arrangements and environments in order to relate to them in new ways. Eventually the structures began to take on organic and often human forms, which added a greater abstraction to the work.