Jessica Judith Beckwith
Jessica Beckwith is a Brooklyn based artist. Born in Michigan she moved to NYC at 19 to study performance at The National Shakespeare Conservatory. She began in the theater directing and performing in traditional and original works in NYC, Boston, LA, and Michigan. Influenced by her classical training in the theater and her love of Growtowski she began to explore installations, creating spaces that envelope the viewer, subtly drawing them into the experience; where the laws of physics and the metaphysical experiences of meditation and sound meet to unravel the mysteries of consciousness and perception.
Education
2011 Interactive Design with Kinect 3RD Ward Brooklyn, NY 2009 Art Theory PNCA Portland
2001 – 2005 Multimedia, Drawing, Rendering New School New York, 1991 – 1993 Performance, Voice Movement NSC New York, NY
EXHIBITIONS
2015 Chashama, New York, NY
2014 Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Governors Island Art Fair, New York, NY
2014 BOS, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Installation Kalachakra for Gong Performance, Performa 13, New York, NY
2013 Transmutations, Governors Island Art Fair, New York, NY
2012 I’d Like To Ask You A Question, Governors Island Art Fair, New York, NY
RESIDENCIES
2014 Artist in Residence, 4heads, Governors Island, NY
2013 Artist in Residence, 4heads, Governors Island, NY
GRANTS
2012 Peter S. Reed Foundation, Collaboration with Nora Breen
BIBLIOGRAPHY
New York Times, Ken Johnson, “Gems Among The Ruins,” September 11, 2014
ARTIST STATMENT
I began with light, that intangible magic.
Captivated by the essence that can be seen and felt, that arises out of a material in a moment and whispers of some aspect of the vast incomprehensible mystery. When the inexpressible and intangible emerge from the work and materialize before me.
Light, sound, projectors, transparencies, shadow, dimension, perspective, these are my tools. They take me into a dynamic holistic perspective of existence that transcends space and time. Moving into a place of consciousness. Fracturing the façade of materiality and revealing what lies beneath the mirage.