Ken Beck: Socks Shoes Soldiers and Such | a Studio Recreation
On View: September 6 - October 1, 2016
Reception: Friday, September 9, 6 - 8 pm
It started as a normal studio visit on a Friday morning in April. We saw old and new paintings of socks, shoes, soldiers and such. We say, “Ken, how are we supposed to choose?!” He answers. “I want to show them all.”
Ken Beck’s studio, in The Piano Factory on Tremont Street in the South End, has become a spoke in the wheel of what makes up Beck’s art career. The studio (the Cabinet of Curiosities) is a floor above his living space (the Lair), but it feels like a continuation of the same space. The studio is a treasure trove overflowing with years of collected materials, early and new paintings, and sentimental items.
This exhibition is not a retrospective, nor is it an overview of everything Beck has done over the past few years. The exhibition will pull nostalgic photographs, sketches, driftwood, painted hats, magazine covers, and old flyers, among other things, that inform his paintings. These objects are pasted and scattered around his studio and become a part of the work itself. Hanging the paintings in this context will help illuminate their genesis.
