Pitch
Dimensions Variable (DV) presents a solo project titled Pitch by Pittsburgh-based artist Kim Beck. The exhibition opens on May 4 and runs through July 10, 2024, in the Main Gallery.
In Pitch, artist Kim Beck explores shifting terrains through weavings, photographs, sculptures, and flags. Pitch draws from its various meanings—tar and bituminous earth used for waterproofing, the tonal quality of sound, and the inclination of surfaces—to delve into themes of surface, tone, and destabilization. This exhibition showcases recent works, revealing ground textures and silhouettes across diverse media. Beck employs crayon rubbings of asphalt on raw linen and spray-painted stone silhouettes, hinting at the pervasive yet destructive cycle of extraction and paving. These pieces subtly engage with disaster and place, inviting open interpretation and showcasing the artist’s methodology.
Beck’s large weavings capture the slow passage of time, contrasting with the immediate marks on their surface. The interplay of color and texture in these weavings, alongside the intentional imperfections, reflects the complexity of merging surfaces. One installation features boulders crafted from stone rubbings, blending into their environment like camouflaged rocks. Outside, Beck extends the theme skyward with three cyanotype flags. These flags, imprinted with ground elements and illuminated by sunlight, transform into celestial symbols, challenging the notion of place and representation. Kim Beck’s Pitch offers a multifaceted exploration of ground and identity, merging everyday materials with profound conceptual underpinnings.
Kim Beck
Kim Beck is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores the everydayness of disaster. Through looking closely at pavement, potholes, weeds and billboards, as well as the texture and residue of small gestures, her work reflects ecological and existential crises from the built environment to the natural world. Moving fluidly between weaving, collage, photography, print, drawing, sculpture, and installation, she employs a wry humor and curiosity to ask questions about our place in the everyday landscape.
Kim Beck has created Grand Openings at the Grand Canyon and skywriting events from New York to Missouri. She has shown work on billboards along I70 and in auto repair lots, in botanical gardens, on rooftops along the High Line, NYC, and at the Walker Art Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Smack Mellon, Socrates Sculpture Park, Warhol Museum, OK Center for Contemporary Art (Linz), Indianapolis Museum of Art, Art Omi, Yale School of Architecture and Hallwalls Center for Contemporary Art. She has held artist residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Art Omi, Bemis Center, International Studio and Curatorial Program, Montalvo Art Center, and VCCA among others, and has received awards from ARS Electronica and Printed Matter. Her work has been reviewed in Art in America, the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, the Village Voice, Interior Design Magazine, The Believer Magazine, BOMBlog, theartblog, The Architect’s Newspaper, and Time Out New York. Kim Beck has an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and BA from Brandeis University.She graduated with a BA from Brandeis University and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She grew up in Colorado and now lives in Pittsburgh where she is a professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon.
