Kevin Beasley (born 1985) is an American artist working in sculpture,performance art, andsound installation. He lives and works in New York City. Beasley was included in theWhitney Museum of American Art'sBiennial in 2014^[1] andMoMA PS1's Greater New York exhibition in 2015.^[2]

Kevin Beasley was born inLynchburg, Virginia. He received a BFA from theCollege for Creative Studies inDetroit, Michigan in 2007 and an MFA fromYale in 2012.

Beasley is known for sculpture that incorporates found materials - especially clothing - and casting materials like resin and foam.^[3] While these materials cure or set into their final state, Beasley works them with his body, a process that points to his interest in sculpture that carries traces of the artist's body while retaining a bodily, fleshy quality of its own.^[1] Many of his sculptures also contain audio equipment or are used in sound-based installations or performances.

Beasley was included in theWhitney Museum of American Art's 2014Whitney Biennial.^[4] Beasley created asite-specific installation consisting of several sculptures with embedded microphones to pick up the ambient signs of the Biennial and its visitors.^[1] The sculptures incorporated sneakers and cast plastics, common materials in Beasley's work.

Beasley was also included in theMuseum of Modern Art's 2014-15 exhibitionCut to Swipe, which focused on electronic and new media works.^[5]

In 2015, theSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum included two works by Beasley in the exhibitionStorylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim.^[6]Strange Fruit: Part I andStrange Fruit: Part II are assemblages of shoes and other found materials with embedded microphones and speakers that reflect ambient sound back to museum visitors.^[7] The reference to the iconic protest song "Strange Fruit" and the use ofAir Jordans in the sculpture point not only to the bodies of the visitors, but to Black bodies throughout history.^[7]Strange Fruit: Part I andStrange Fruit: Part II were commissioned by the Young Collector's Council of theSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum forStorylines and are now part of the museum's collection.^[8]

Beasley participated in theStudio Museum in Harlem's 2014 exhibitionMaterial Histories at the culmination of an 11 month residency at the museum from 2013-14.Material Histories showcased work by Beasley and two otherartists-in-residence during the same period.^[9]

Beasley's solo exhibition, "A view of a landscape",^[10] is currently on view at theWhitney Museum of American Art from Dec 15, 2018–Mar 10, 2019.^[11] It is his first solo exhibit at a New York museum. The exhibition features an immersive installation that centers around acotton gin motor fromMaplesville, Alabama and the history of his family's land in theAmerican South.^[12] The installation focuses on the sensorial, through the visual and auditory distillation of the cotton gin throughout the space. In addition, a series of live performances (solo and collaborative) and talks^[13] are programmed throughout the run of the exhibition.

Beasley is also known for his performance work, in which he often uses his sculptures to produce live sound. For a performance during the 2014Whitney Biennial, Beasley "played" several of his sculptures by touching and moving them around the gallery. The sounds made by his body and the materials of the sculptures were captured by microphones embedded in the sculptures and amplified by speakers for the audience.^[14] Beasley also performs sound art without sculpture - in 2012 he performedI Want My Spot Back in the Atrium of theMuseum of Modern Art - a piece consisting only of a capella clips of deceased 1990's era rappers, mixed and amplified by Beasley live.^[15]

Over the course of his 2018-2019 solo exhibition, "A view of a landscape" atthe Whitney Museum,^[16] Beasley features live performances with:Taja Cheek,^[17][18]Eli Keszler,^[19][20]Jlin, and himself. The cotton gin serves an instrument in the performances, where artists are able to manipulate and process its sounds into live compositions.

Commissioned byPerforma for Performa 21, Beasley createdThe Sound of Morning (2021). With sculptures made by using everyday objects and materials, performers, and mics that magnify noise, Beasley combined sculpture, sound, performance, and site specificity for this work.

• Pérez Art Museum Miami^[21]
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum^[7]
• The Museum of Modern Art^[22]
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art^[23]
• Tate Modern^[24]
• Dallas Museum of Art^[25]
• Albright-Knox Art Gallery^[26]

• 1985 births
• Living people
• People from Lynchburg, Virginia
• Artists from New York City
• Artists from Virginia
• 21st-century American male artists
• 21st-century African-American artists

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