Caleb Beck takes risks. Sometimes, measured application is clearly realized, while in other instances youthful impulsiveness prevails. In our hyperactive capitalist culture where art is commodified prior to proper assessment, Beck understands the importance in taking his chances (no matter how lofty) in the torturous terrain that one navigates as a young artist today. Beck utilizes optical trickery, reconfiguring the painting canvas into 3-dimensional form, and an energy that is distinct to the age in which he is producing his work. This week the COMP Magazine headed down to East Pilsen to discuss with Beck his youth in the southeast, the purging of grad school demons, the role games play in his aesthetic practice, and his curatorial efforts in the running of Baby Blue Gallery.
You are from the southeast, studied at Virginia Commonwealth University, then completed your MFA in Boston at Tufts University. You are now living in Chicago, running Baby Blue Gallery, and developing a professional studio practice. Lets rewind a bit and discuss early encounters and how you landed in the Windy City. Are there any specific events or people you see as informing your present day trajectory? What brought you to the city?
Yes, I grew up in south-western Virginia in a rural college town. As a teenager I read Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanismand enough Nietzsche to know I wanted to “live dangerously”, so around 16 I decided to be an artist since I was decent at painting and drawing. I went to art school at VCU and the apartment galleries my friend Nick Fagan took me to in Richmond were very influential. They showed me innovative and young artist-run environments, as opposed to the stifling and conservative scene I saw in grad school in Boston. Another important event was my first time truly going to New York and seeing actual artists and gallerists, this was on a class trip with the artist Ridley Howard. I escaped Boston because my ex-girlfriend got into SAIC’s sculpture grad department. I also had two friends coming here, so I figured I’d take my shot, anywhere but Boston.
You noted a paradigm shift in your work in recent time. What prompted this fresh approach? What specifically is different than previous ideas and methods?
Sorting out what information is and has always been important to me. Rather than information I feel I ought or am expected to know. Practically speaking, I mean disregarding most critical theory, and instead reading Umberto Eco, Pinker, Cognitive science, epistemology, Early Modern Aesthetics, etc. I’m not having to position myself using buzzwords and jargon to curry favor with a professor or show status. Also my time is precious now, and I’m only doing this for me. So I think the last of the indoctrination that accrued in art school has worn off. I do things because I want to, and I think them through because my time is valuable to myself. And they have time to gestate because the gallery and teaching consumes my time.
I see you working in an area that straddles visual approaches that are abstract and narrative simultaneously. This is most prevalent when I look at works like Impossible Shot, 2018. In terms of visual strategies, this painting functions in part like a trompe l’oeil work produced in the early 20thc. Can you walk us through your process? Specifically, what role does the design of the 2-dimensional plane play in conveying the content?
Paintings and by extension all pictorial spaces (including iPhones) are a combination of window (depth) and surface (plane). Therefore their logic is often contradictory…. unless you are a boring painter and choose exclusively depth or flatness. A truly complex painting encapsulates and harmonizes this antagonism. Places it at the viewers feet and makes it aware to them. This moment of absurdity is the sublimity painting offers, it shows the nature and limitations of human thinking. This correlates most directly in my work whose subject matter is games. Games are abstractions that reveal human-ness, or at least allow it to play out. It’s why our sports are so dramatic.
There’s a series of work that is rather curious and somewhat naughty. These paintings focus upon the crotch, buttocks or combination of the two. There’s something a bit oddly nefarious in the content, yet the painting style appears innocent. What is going on here?
I wanted to sensualize Joseph Albers. If anything is nefarious it is the forced looking at genitalia, by the cropping. But in my defense, people look at “private parts” all the time and glance away… hence why we have text on shorts. I’m simply fixing/forcing this view through the painting. I try to avoid being overtly sexual or pornographic. That just seems obvious or boring. Its edgy in a played out way. It was a problem I had initially with the paintings, I saw a lot of people making similar work based on sex appeal. I think a flaccid dick is somehow more uncomfortable currently, than an erection. The paintings also address the similar formal contradictions to my whole work, flat vs depth. I think the same sensuality that is structured into us, of feeling fabric vs Skin, image vs object, is in painting.
In addition to working as a painter, you run Baby Blue Gallery in Pilsen. Do you see any overlap in this effort with your painting practice? Also, how do you juggle such time consuming tasks?
I don’t really see an overlap. I definitely don’t inform either with the other creatively. But at the root they come from the same place and require the same skills. The gallery has made me a more objective critic of my own work. Its very hard to juggle, its mainly just a lot of time after work and a lot of emailing on my cell-phone. At this point having done a show basically every month for 2 years, it so normal to me I have trouble analyzing it.
What do you value most in your aesthetic practice?
Quiet moments with art and discussions with friends.
I believe you are either preparing for or just back from doing a show in NYC. What else is on the gallery and studio calendar for 2019? What specific investigations, shows or curatorial projects are presently in the works for the remainder of 2019?
My schedule for the rest of the year hasn’t been locked in. I’m currently shifting things around. But, I’m going to switch to a 6 week turn around instead of a 4 week, and focus on 2-3 person shows. This will give me more time to develop the shows, clarify ideas, and really hone in the personality of the gallery.
For additional information on Caleb Beck, please check out:
Caleb Beck – https://www.calebbeck.com
Chi Art Hub – https://chiartshub.com
Baby Blue Gallery – https://www.babybluegallery.com
Artist interview and portrait by Chester Alamo-Costello
