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Walead Beshty - Artists - Petzel Gallery

Walead Beshty (b. 1976, London, U.K.)

Walead Beshty was born in London, United Kingdom in 1976 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied at Bard College and received his Masters in Fine Art from Yale University in 2002. He has held academic positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA; Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA; and the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA.

Beshty has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2014, 2022); Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich (2016, 2021); Kunst Museum Winterthur, Switzerland, 2020; Musée d'art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2019); Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2018); Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo (2017); Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara (2015); Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, New York (2015); Curve Gallery, Barbican Centre, London (2014); Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2011); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2009); the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2006); and MoMA PS1, New York (2004), among others. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Cloud Seven, Brussels (2022); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017, 2022); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2019); Tate Modern, London (2018); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2014); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2013); Gemeente Museum Den Haag, The Hague (2013); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2011); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010), among many others.

Walead Beshty has also curated many exhibitions, including Luma Arles, Arles, France (2018 & 2016); Hessel Museum, Center for Curatorial Studies, Hudson, NY (2017); Petzel Gallery, New York (2014); Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2014); Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (2013); and MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (2006).

Beshty has works in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Tate, London; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; the de la Cruz Collection, Miami; the Fond Régional d’Art Contemporain Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque, France, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

“I tend to think of my work in terms of constraints, whether that be context, convention or material, and use their logics to generate the work. I guess that’s because I see life as an improvisation within constraints, and affirmative notions of selfhood, autonomy, freedom, etc., arise through the active negotiation with restriction.”

Walead Beshty in Conversation with Hamza Walker on the occasion of Equivalents, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, 2018

Career Highlights

Walead Beshty - Artists - Petzel Gallery

Installation view, A Diagram of Forces, Malmö Konsthall, 2011

1976 Born, London, UK

1999 Graduates Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, New York

2002 Masters in Fine Art, Yale University

2004 The Phenomenology of Shopping and Dead Malls—curated by Bob Nickas, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY

2006 Hammer Project: Walead Beshty, EMBASSY! (a dis- mal science waiting room), Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

2009 Legibility on Color Backgrounds, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

2011 A Diagram of Forces, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, SE & Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, ES (Ex. cat.)

Securities and Exchanges, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Walead Beshty - Artists - Petzel Gallery

Installation view, Walead Beshty, MAMCO, Geneva, 2019

2014 A Partial Disassembling of an Invention Without a Future: Helter-Skelter and Random Notes in Which the Pulleys and Cogwheels Are Lying Around at Random All Over the Workbench, Curve Gallery, Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom

2015 All the World’s Futures—curated by Okwui Enwezor, 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT

2017 Open Source, Petzel

2019  Abstract of A Partial Disassembling of an Invention...., Petzel, 2019

Walead Beshty, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, CH

2020  Standard Deviations, Kunst Museum Winterthur, DE

Installation view, A Diagram of Forces, Malmö Konsthall, 2011

Installation view, A Diagram of Forces, Malmö Konsthall, 2011

Installation view, Walead Beshty, MAMCO, Geneva, 2019

Installation view, Walead Beshty, MAMCO, Geneva, 2019

Fedex® Medium Kraft Boxes..., 2007 Laminated glass, FedEx shipping box, accrued FedEx shipping and tracking labels, silicone, metal, tape 20 x 48 x 20 in

Fedex® Medium Kraft Boxes...

2007 Laminated glass, FedEx shipping box, accrued FedEx shipping and tracking labels, silicone, metal, tape 20 x 48 x 20 in

Installation view, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 2020

Installation view, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 2020