Kim Beck

Kim Beck (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator whose work explores the everydayness of disaster. By looking closely at pavement, potholes, weeds and billboards, her work reflects ecological and existential crises, from the built environment to the natural world. She has created Grand Openings at the Grand Canyon and skywriting events from New York to Missouri, and shown work on billboards along I70, in auto repair lots, botanical gardens, the NYC High Line, Walker Art Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Smack Mellon, Socrates Sculpture Park, Warhol Museum, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Art Omi, Yale School of Architecture and Hallwalls Center for Contemporary Art. She has been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Art Omi, Bemis Center, International Studio and Curatorial Program, Montalvo Art Center, and VCCA, and received awards from ARS Electronica and Printed Matter. Beck holds a BA from Brandeis University, MFA from RISD. She grew up in Colorado and teaches at Carnegie Mellon School of Art.

Faculty Fellowship Focus

Print for the People: This semester-long class will guide students through using print media and photography to conversations about information literacy, media, print publication and intervention in public space.

“Democracy depends on people believing in the process of creating a representational system, where they have power and agency to affect change. It’s empowering for students to feel their voices are heard and matter. Teaching voting curricula is a way of making the work we do in the classroom directly relevant, and gives students a concrete way to bring their artwork into a public space.”

– Kim Beck, Associate Professor of Art, Carnegie Mellon University