Kim Beck

Kim Beck (born 1970, Colorado) is an American artist living and working in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beck works in drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, printmaking and multimedia, focusing her attention on subjects that might otherwise be overlooked. She is especially known for her artist's books and public artworks dealing with the subject of environment and landscape.

Beck's work has been reviewed by media such as Artforum, Art in America, Hyperallergic, KQED, The New York Times, and The Village Voice.

Artist's books

Pavements, Potholes & Repairs, published by MAB Books, 2019
A Flock of Signs, published by Printed Matter, Inc., 2014
A Field Guide to Weeds, published by Printed Matter, Inc., 2007, 2008, 2014

Public art commissions

Appalachian Ecology: Nature’s Quilt, 2027

Kim Beck has been selected by PennDOT as the artist for the SR22/I-376 Interchange improvement project. Her concept, Appalachian Ecology: Nature’s Quilt, transforms the new interchange into a celebration of regional ecology, drawing on the traditional “Flying Geese” quilt pattern.

Touchstones, 2025

Touchstones was commissioned by the Pittsburgh International Airport. Beck created cyanotypes from stones and printed them on glass panels in layered compositions of silhouettes and shadows.

Provisional, 2021

Commissioned for the Meta (Facebook) Open Arts program in Pittsburgh, Provisional consists of hand-woven photographs of roads and utility markings.

Here, 2021

Commissioned by Laumeier Sculpture Park, Here features printed flags created from cyanotypes and rubbings of the ground's texture.

Adjutant, 2015

Adjutant — a mural installed on the concrete wall beneath the 10th Street Bypass ramp for the Fort Duquesne Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA. The mural is composed of images of oversized common weeds using silhouettes in shades of black, gray and white. A team of some 150 volunteers organized by Riverlife Pittsburgh executed the work June 6–14, 2015, during the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. The mural is part of #TBD, a concept for public art projects that bring dramatic change and attention to the downtown Allegheny riverfront beneath the Fort Duquesne Bridge. In June 2020, this artwork was updated with a BLM mural and subsequent additions.

Wildish, 2014

Wildish was commissioned by the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia.

NOTICE: A Flock of Signs, 2013-2014

In 2013, Beck was commissioned by Sarah Urist Green at the Indianapolis Museum of Art to create NOTICE: A Flock of Signs for the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. The site-specific installation featured clusters of densely packed, contradictory directional signs situated along landscape pathways. A second iteration of the project was created in 2014 for Art Omi in Ghent, New York, following Beck's 2013 residency. The work explores themes of overabundance and misdirection within the natural landscape. In 2013, Printed Matter published a related artist book titled A Flock of Signs.

The Sky Is the Limit/NYC, 2011

The Sky Is the Limit/NYC was a temporary skywriting installation in New York City on October 10, 2011.

Space Available, 2011–2012

Space Available, was installed March 4, 2011 – January 2012 on rooftops along Washington Street, between West 13th Street and Gansevoort Street in [New York City]. Intended to be viewed from the High Line, the exhibition was commissioned by Friends of the High Line.

Selected awards

Beck has received awards from the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Oak Spring Garden Foundation , International Studio & Curatorial Program, Art Omi International Artists Residency, Prix Ars Electronica, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.

Exhibition and public collections

Beck's work has been exhibited widely, including solo and group exhibitions at the Walker Art Center, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the High Line, Smack Mellon, and the Andy Warhol Museum. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Drawings and Prints), the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Philbrook Museum of Art.

Professional affiliations

Beck is a Professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. She is an alumna of the Yale Norfolk School of Art (1991) and a recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.