KEVIN BEASLEY
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1985, Lynchburg, VA.
Lives and works in New York, NY
Education:
MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT, 2012
BFA, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI, 2007
Residencies:
2020
A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
Delfina Foundation, London, UK
2016
Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva Island, FL
2013-2014
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2013
International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Brooklyn, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland, OH
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2023
“In an effort to keep,” Casey Kaplan, New York, NY, May 13 – July 28, 2023
2022
“On site,” Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA, May 7 – June 25, 2022
“A body, revealed," Hill Art Foundation, New York, NY, February 11 – April 30, 2022
2020
“Kevin Beasley: Reunion,” Casey Kaplan, New York, NY, September 10 – October 24, 2020
“without a clear discernible image,” A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa, February 6 – April 30, 2020
2018
“A view of a landscape,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, December 15, 2018 – March 10, 2019 [performance]
“Kevin Beasley,” The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, May 9 – August 26, 2018; catalogue
2017
“Rubbings,” Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, Latvia, December 16, 2017 – January 21, 2018
“Sport/Utility,” Casey Kaplan, New York, NY, May 2 – June 17, 2017
"Movement V: Ballroom,” CounterCurrent17, in collaboration with Project Row Houses and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, University of Houston, Houston, TX, April 18 – 23, 2017 [performance]
“Hammer Projects: Kevin Beasley,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, January 21 – April 23, 2017
2016
“inHarlem: Kevin Beasley,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, Morningside Park, NY, August 25, 2016 – July 25, 2017
2015
“Untitled Stanzas: Staff/Un/Site,” High Line at the Rail Yards, New York, NY, September 22 – 24, 2015 [performance]
“Night (1947-2015),” curated by Jordan Stein, The Glass House, New Canaan, CT, May 1 – August 31, 2015
“Kevin Beasley,” Casey Kaplan, New York, NY, February 26 – March 18, 2015 [performance]
2014
“Kevin Beasley,” The Butcher’s Daughter, Detroit, MI, April 5 – May 18, 2014
2012
“Latency: A Collection of Works by Kevin Beasley,” The Butcher’s Daughter, Ferndale, MI, March 24 – April 28, 2012
2009
"Found Asleep Underwater,” ORG Contemporary, Detroit, MI, October 17 – November 7, 2009
2008
“Non/Places," Neal Davis Gallery, Royal Oak, MI, February 15 – March 15, 2008
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2024
“The Writing’s on the Wall: Language and Silence in the Visual Arts,” curated by Hilton Als, Hill Art Foundation, New York, NY, December 12, 2024 – March 29, 2025
“Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon,” MoMA PS1, Queens, NY, November 14, 2024 – March 24, 2025
“Manual Assembly: Fragments of a Whole,” Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, Canada, November 7 – December 21, 2024
“Ancestry: Afro-Americas,” Museu de Arte Brasileira, Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, São Paolo, Brazil, October 29, 2024 – January 26, 2025
“Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, October 19, 2024 – February 18, 2025; travels to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK, September 13, 2025 – January 26, 2026; Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL, March 2026 – September 2026
“Ralph Lemon & Kevin Beasley: Rant redux,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, October 3 – 13, 2024 [performance]
“Edges of Ailey,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, September 25, 2024 – February 9, 2025; catalogue
“World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project,” California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA, September 18, 2024 – March 2, 2025
“Pansori - a soundscape of the 21st century,” 15th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju Museum of Art, South Korea, September 7 – December 1, 2024
“Salon Hannam 2024,” organized by LIFEPLUS Art, Seoul, South Korea, September 4 – 14, 2024
“Social Abstraction,” Gagosian, Beverly Hills, CA, July 18 – August 30, 2024; travels to Gagosian, Hong Kong, China, September 10 – November 2, 2024
“Soft Power,” DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany, March 16 – August 11, 2024
“By Way Of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, March 15, 2024 – January 12, 2025
“Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art,” Barbican Centre, February 13 – May 26, 2024; travels to Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 14, 2024 – January 5, 2025
2023
“RETROaction,” Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY, November 15, 2023 – January 27, 2024; travels to Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles, CA, February 27 – May 5, 2024
“Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, October 20, 2023 – April 7, 2024; catalogue
“Seven Rooms and a Garden: Rashid Johnson and The Moderna Museet Collection,” Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, September 30, 2023 – September 8, 2024
“In an effort to be held,” the Sheperd, Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI, August 3 – October 12, 2024
“A soft place to land,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, July 7, 2023 – January 7, 2024
“Inheritance,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, June 28, 2023 – February 4, 2024
“Crusading The Specter,” Yossi Milo, New York, NY, June 22 – August 11, 2023
“Ecstatic: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, June 10 – August 27, 2023
“Beautiful, Vivid, Self-contained,” Hill Art Foundation, New York, NY, April 21 – July 21, 2023
2022
“Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: A Tribute to Lawrence Weiner,” Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA, September 15 – October 22, 2022
“Fear of Property,” The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, September 10 – November 6, 2022
“Lifes,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, February 16 – May 8, 2022 [performance]
2021
“Assembly: New Acquisitions by Contemporary Black Artists,” Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas, Austin, TX, December 11, 2021 – May 8, 2022
“WHAT DO YOU SEE, YOU PEOPLE, GAZING AT ME,” Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK, November 16, 2021 – January 29, 2022; catalogue
“Yesterday we said tomorrow,” Prospect.5, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA, October 23, 2021 – January 23, 2022; catalogue
“The Worlds We Make: Selections from the ICA Collection,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, August 14, 2021 – December 31, 2022
“Of Weight and Motion: European Bronze Statuettes in Dialogue with Sculptures by Noguchi, Glynn, Gober, and Beasley,” Hill Art Foundation, New York, NY, July 16 – August 15, 2021
“Adams, Beasley, Crowner, Dash,” Casey Kaplan, New York, NY, May 1 – July 30, 2021
“Rituals of Resilience,” Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, March 18, 2021 – March 3, 2022
“Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” New Museum, New York, NY, February 17 – June 6, 2021; catalogue
“The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, May 22 – September 6, 2021; travels to Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, November 5, 2021 – February 6, 2022; catalogue
“There is this we,” Sculpture Milwaukee 2021, Milwaukee, WI, Summer 2021 – Fall 2022
“A Beautiful America,” Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium, November 7, 2021 – January 23, 2022
2020
“how do you arrive at a place when your image arrives before you?,” blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa, December 10, 2020 – February 6, 2021
“Make-Shift-Future,” curated by Elliott Hundley, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA, March 27 – May 22, 2021
“Psychic Wounds: On Art and Trauma,” The Warehouse, Dallas, TX, February 6, 2020 – November 28, 2021
2019
“Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art,” Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, September 29, 2019 – January 19, 2020
“Ace: Art on Sports, Promise, and Selfhood,” University Art Museum, University at Albany, Albany, NY, June 28 – December 7, 2019
“Frederick Douglass: Embers of Freedom,” SCAD Museum of Art, The Savannah College of Art and Design, GA, October 3, 2019 – January 5, 2020
“Great Force,” VCU Institute for Contemporary Art, Virginia, Richmond, VA, October 5, 2019 – January 5, 2020
“Young Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art,” OSilas Gallery at Concordia College, Bronxville, NY, September 26 – December 9, 2019; travels to Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY, February 26 – December 31, 2020; Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, September 2 – December 11, 2021; Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA, February 1 – May 27 2022; The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, June – December 2022; catalogue
“Landlord Colors: On Art, Economy, and Materiality,” Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI, June 22 – October 6, 2019; catalogue
“Material Tells,” Oakville Galleries, Ontario, Canada, June 23 – September 8, 2019
“ASSEMBLY,” (organized by Kevin Beasley, Lumi Tan, Tim Griffin, and Nicole Kaack), The Kitchen, New York, NY, June 15 – 30, 2019
“World Receivers,” The Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK, March 21 – July 7, 2019; catalogue
2018
“We the People: New Art from the Collection,” Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY, October 23, 2018 – July 21, 2019
“Beautiful world, where are you?,” Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK, July 14 – October 28, 2018; catalogue
“Inherent Structure,” Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, May 19 – August 12, 2018
“Nothing Stable Under Heaven,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, March 3 – September 16, 2018
2017
“Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection,” Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA, September 30, 2017 – January 21, 2018; travels to Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, February 22 – July 15, 2018; Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, August 18 – December 15, 2018; Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, January 29 – May 19, 2019; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL, April 24 – July 26, 2020
“That I am readings backwards and into for a purpose, to go on,” curated by the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, The Kitchen, New York, NY, May 23 – June 10, 2017
“Touchpiece,” Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, May 21 – June 24, 2017
2016
“A Slow Succession with Many Interruptions,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, December 10, 2016 – April 2, 2017
“The Beat Goes On,” curated by Derrick Adams, SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY, August 20 – September 17, 2016 [performance]
“Blackness in Abstraction,” curated by Adrienne Edwards, Pace Gallery, New York, NY, June 24 – August 19, 2016; catalogue
“Imitation of Life: Melodrama and Race in the 21st Century,” HOME, Manchester, UK, April 30, 2016 – July 3, 2016
“Between the Ticks of the Watch,” The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, April 24 – June 26, 2016; catalogue [performance]
“Surrogates,” Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada, March 5 – June 4, 2016; catalogue
“A Moment of Grace,” Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK, April 16 – May 22, 2016
“A Shape That Stands Up,” The Hammer Museum at Art + Practice, Los Angeles, CA, March 19 – June 18, 2016
“Winter 2015: Collected Works,” Rennie Museum, Vancouver, Canada, January 23 – April 23, 2016
“Looking Back / The 10th White Columns Annual,” selected by Matthew Higgs, White Columns, New York, NY, January 12 – February 20, 2016
2015
“Many things brought from one climate to another,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario, Toronto, November 11, 2015 – June 12, 2016 [performance]
“Greater New York," MOMA PS1, Long Island City, NY, October 11, 2015 – March 7, 2016
“Breath/Breadth: Contemporary American Black Male Identity,” Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, Lynchburg, VA, September 3 – December 11, 2015
“Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, June 5 – September 9, 2015 [performance]
2014
“The Global Africa Project-Political Patterns,” Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea, December 16, 2014 – February 15, 2015; catalogue
“Cut to Swipe,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, October 11, 2014 – June 21, 2015
“Rockaway!,” PS1 MOMA, Rockaway Beach, New York, NY, July 2 – September 1, 2014 [performance]
“Material Histories,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, July 17 – October 26, 2014
“When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, March 27 – June 29, 2014; travels to NSU Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL, August 3 – October 12, 2014; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, February 4 – May 10, 2015; catalogue [performance]
“The 2014 Whitney Biennial,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, March 7 – May 25, 2014; catalogue [performance]
“Harold Ancart, Kevin Beasley, Mateo López,” Casey Kaplan, New York, NY, February 27 – April 26, 2014 [performance]
2013
“Queens International 2013,” Queen Museum of Art, New York, NY, November 9, 2013 – January 19, 2014 [performance]
“Realization is Better Than Anticipation,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, June 28, 2013 – October 13, 2013
“6<<<>>> Part I,” curated by Cleopatra’s, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, NY, June 14 – 30, 2013 [performance]
2012
“Fore,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem, NY, November 11, 2012 – March 10, 2013 [performance]
“Some Sweet Day,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, October 15 – November 4, 2012 [performance]
“Thesis Part Two,” Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, 2012
“An All-Day Event, The End,” Danspace, New York, NY, March 31, 2012
2011
“PULSE Contemporary Art Fair Los Angeles,” The Butcher’s Daughter, Los Angeles, CA, September 30 – October 3, 2011
“Live from Detroit,” Fred Torres Collaborations, New York, NY, April 15 – June 11, 2011
“New Departures and Transitions,” N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI, March 18 – June 4, 2011
“College Art Association New York Area MFA Exhibition,” Hunter College, New York, NY, February 9 – April 9, 2011
2010
“Paycheck to Paycheck,” The Butcher’s Daughter, Ferndale, MI, September 4 – October 9, 2010
2009
“Shameless Nameless Recycled,” POP gallery, Los Angeles, CA, December 11, 2009 – January 30, 2010
“Detroit: Breeding Ground," Museum of New Art (MoNA), Pontiac, MI, October 3 – November 21, 2009
“Kevin Beasley and Vanessa Merrill,” Museum of New Art (MoNA), Pontiac, MI, 2009
“:Wellness: Film premier,” Cave, Detroit, MI, 2009
“Change: Its all There Already,” University of Michigan art gallery, Detroit, MI, 2009
2008
“This and There, Somewhere,” Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 2008
“Andres Serrano Picks Detroit,” Center Galleries, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI, 2008
“Detroit-Toledo Exhibition,” Secor Gallery/Detroit Industrial Projects, Toledo, OH, June 14 – July 12, 2008
“Still Moving,” Cave, Detroit, MI, 2008
“Michigan Fine Arts Competition,” Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Birmingham, MI, 2008
“Semester in Detroit Art Show,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2008
2007
“Stag,” Cave, Detroit, MI, 2007
“Exhibiting Group Show,” Detroit Industrial Projects, Detroit, MI, 2007
“Black and White," Cave, Detroit, MI, 2007
“Selections IX,” Center Galleries, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI, 2007
2006
“Even Clean Hands Leave Marks and Damage Surfaces,” Detroit Industrial Projects, Detroit, MI, 2006, December 1, 2006 – January 13, 2006
"Selected Works by Deb Garlick and Kevin Beasley,” Neal Davis Gallery, Royal Oak, MI, 2006
“Black and White,” Neal Davis Gallery, Royal Oak, MI, 2006
Performances:
2025
“Rant#6,” MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY, March 22, 2025
2024
“Tell it anyway,” MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY, November 14, 16, 2024
“Tell it anyway,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, October 4 – 5, 2024
2022
“Rant #5,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, May 2, 2022
2021
“The Sound of Morning,” Performa Biennial, corner of Orchard and Rivington, New York, NY, October 14 – 16, 2021
2020
"Rant #3,” The Kitchen, New York, NY, February 29, 2020
2019
“RANT,” Kevin Beasley and Ralph Lemon, Fórum do Futuro, Palacio Dos Correios, Porto, Portugal, November 3, 2019
Kevin Beasley with Jlin, Whitney Museum of American Art, March 2, 2019
Kevin Beasley, Whitney Museum of American Art, February 16, 2019
Kevin Beasley with Eli Keszler, Whitney Museum of American Art, January 26, 2019
Kevin Beasley with Taja Cheek, Whitney Museum of American Art, January 12, 2019
2018
“Chorus Dance,” Stedelijik Museum, June 2018
“Chorus Dance,” Underground Museum, January 2018
2017
“Movement V: Ballroom,” CounterCurrent17, in collaboration with Project Row Houses and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, University of Houston, TX, April 22, 2017
2016
“Listening Room,” SVA Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY, September 15, 2016
“Visual Artists at the Atrium: Michael Auder and Kevin Beasley,” David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center, New York, NY, June 2, 2016
“Kevin Beasley: Movement II: BEATEN-FACE/TOMS/ARMS, TIES, & LEG/FLOOR/BODY/BASS,” The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, May 25, 2016
“Your face is / is not enough, 2016, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, April 24, 2016
“Chorus Dance,” Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, June 2016
2015
“Scaffold Room,” The Kitchen, New York, NY, November 3 – November 10, 2015
“Untitled Stanzas: Staff/Un/Site,” High Line at the Rail Yards, New York, NY, September 22 – 24, 2015
“An Evening with Kevin Beasley,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, June 26, 2015
“Black Rocker,” presented by SOLUNA and Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, May 15, 2015
“Movement IV," Casey Kaplan, New York, NY, March 28, 2015
“Movement IV,” Casey Kaplan, New York, NY, February 26, 2015
2014
“New Forms 14,” Vancouver, Canada, September 18, 2014
“Whitney Biennial,” New York, NY, May 14, 16, 17, 2014
“Casey Kaplan,” New York, NY, April 26, 2014
“And in My Dream I Was Rolling on the Floor," Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, April 12, 2014
“The Walker Art Center,” Minneapolis, MN. In conjunction with Sound Horizon curated by Jim Hodges, May 8, 2014
“From Ashy to Classy Mix I (Valley of Ashes),” Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY, November 17, 2014
2013
“…all different: for I do, I suppose, partake of multitude,” Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, NY, June 2, 2013
2012
“I Want My Spot Back,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, October 25 – 26, 2012
Awards and Grants:
2023
Heinz Family Foundation Heinz Award for the Arts
Public Collections:
Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
The Legacy Museum, Montgomery, AL
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, FL
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Tate Modern, London, UK