About The Artist
My work documents time and transformation. I change forms and materials through geologic processes like layering, stacking, and carving. I combine blends of reclaimed wood and synthetics like foam and tapes and transform them from patined flat lumber to carved undulating surfaces, creating new landscapes. I am inspired by observing the intersection of the human and natural landscape: places where the human and natural worlds intersect.
Forms and processes in my work are metaphors for personal transformation. My adult life is a journey of learning and discovery, both artistic and personal, correcting what is broken, removing what is unnecessary, and trusting the process.
Barry Beach’s artwork combines processes and materials from natural and synthetic sources. His work focuses on the processes of transformation and time. He uses malleable materials like wood to document time and transform it into many forms.
Forms and processes in my work are metaphors for his transformation. Barry’s adult life has been a journey of learning and discovery, both artistic and personal, correcting what is broken, removing what is unnecessary, and trusting the process.
He regularly exhibits work at venues such as the Crocker-Kingsley Art Exhibition in Roseville, CA, Long Island Foundation for the Arts and Sciences in New Jersey, Art Poetica in Brooklyn, Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, and Root Division in San Francisco.
His education includes an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He lives and works in San Rafael and has a studio at ArtWorks Downtown. He teaches art at Marin Academy and has a college advising and portfolio preparation business, helping artists and designers prepare for college.
Mixed Media, Sculpture, Wood
Studio #29, ArtWorks Downtown, 1337 4th Street, San Rafael, CA
Studio Information
ArtWorks Downtown
29
Basement of building- you can also enter from side on D street beside the post office and behind T & B Sports
Contact Information
Exhibitions & Press
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Accumulations and Excavations, Thompson Dorfman Partners, Mill Valley, CA
2008 Vernissage, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
2008 New Landscapes, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2005 Transitions, Buckley Center Gallery, University of Portland, Portland, OR
2005 Material Culture, Mirror Pond Gallery, Bend, OR
2001 Accumulations, Nil Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
2000 Reifications and Substantiations, Johnson City Area Arts Council, Johnson City, TN
JURIED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024, Influx: Relicalibrating the Unknown, Museum of Northern California Art, Chico, CA
Curator: Jeremy Morgan
2024, Arts and Crafts, Sausalito Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
Curator: Shiva Pakdel
2024 Artworks Downtown, Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, CA. Juried by Stan Gibbs
2024 Surf, Mountains, and Flowers: Contemporary Artists’ Visions of Marin, Thompson Dorfman Partners, Mill Valley, CA. Juried by Elisabeth Setten
2024 A Question of Balance, Museum of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA. Jurors: Jeff Nathanson, Art Curator, Museum of Sonoma County Art & Kate Eilertsen, Chief Curator of Di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art
2023 The Next Big Thing ‘23, Studio Channel Islands, Ventura, CA
Curator: Shana Nys Dambrot, arts editor for L.A. Weekly
2023 Laws of Nature, Petaluma Art Center, Petaluma, CA
Curator: Vicky Kumpfer, public art consultant
2023 Slice: A Juried Exhibition of Regional Art, Pence Gallery, Davis, CA
Juror: Kelly Lindner, Curator for University Galleries, California State University, Sacramento
2023 Landscape Perspectives, Gallery 1337, ArtWorks Downtown, San Rafael, CA
Juror: Kim Eagles-Smith, Kim Eagles-Smith Gallery
2023 Landscape: Constructed and Wild, SITE: Brooklyn website
Juror: Alexxa Gotthardt, SFMOMA
2022-23 Crocker-Kingsley Art Competition, Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA
Juror: Emma Saperstein, Chief Curator San Luis Obispo Museum of Art
2022-21 Small Works Exhibition, Artworks Downtown, San Rafael, CA
Juror: Jack Fischer, owner Jack Fisher Gallery
2021 Weave, Cut, Bundle and Layer, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
Curator: Lisa McCutcheon
2021 Beauty or Truth, Art Works Downtown, San Rafael, CA
Juror: Chandra Cerrito
2021 International Sculpture Center Chapter Member Showcase, online at http://www.Artsy.com
Jurors: International Sculpture Center members
2021 A Moment of Reflection, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
Juror: Emebet Korn
2020 The Red Wood, online exhibition at https://www.theredwood.show/
Curator: Julia Westerbeck
2020 Tunnels of the Mind, video projection in Times Square by ZAZ10 Gallery, New York, NY
Curator: Orit Ben Shitrit
2019 Said I Meant, Artpoetica, Brooklyn, NY
Curator: JoAnne McFarland
2019 Made in California, City of Brea Gallery, Brea, CA
Juror: Yevgeniya Mikhailik
2019 Matter of Form, Shoh Gallery, Berkeley, CA
Juror: Christine Koppes, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
2019 Crocker-Kingsley Art Competition, Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA
Juror: David Pagel, Claremont Graduate University
2018 Works on Paper, Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts & Sciences, Long Beach, NJ
Juror: Kim Conaty, Whitney Museum of American Art
2017 International Sculpture Center digital exhibition at Miami Art Week
Jurors: International Sculpture Center members
2017 Migrations, 1337 Gallery, ArtWorks Downtown, San Rafael, CA
Juror: Emily A. Kuhlmann, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
2017 EXPO Chicago, International Sculpture Center Chapter Exhibition Online,
Jurors: International Sculpture Center members
2017 Works on Paper, Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts & Sciences, Long Beach, NJ
Juror: Jane Panetta, Whitney Museum of American Art
2017 Flora and Fauna, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Juror: Suzanne Gray, Seager Gray Gallery
2016 SFAI Alumni Exhibition, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Juror: Katya Min, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
2016 Palette, Ampersand International Arts, San Francisco, CA
Jurors: Lisa Solomon, Theodora Mauro, Kelly Inouye [continued]
2016 Architecture, ArtWorks Downtown, San Rafael, CA
Juror: Eric Moreau
2015 Small Works Exhibition, ArtWorks Downtown, San Rafael, CA
Juror: J.D. Beltran, San Francisco Arts Commission
2015 Works on Paper, Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts & Sciences, Long Beach, NJ
Juror: Carter E. Foster, Whitney Museum of American Art
2015 Build It! IDEA Museum, Mesa, AZ
Curator: Jeffory Morris
2012 De-Mobbing: Landscape, Structure and Bioform, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
Curator: Brian Karl
2010 My San Francisco: A Neighborhood MashUp, collaboration with CENTS artist collaborative,
Children’s Creativity Museum, San Francisco, CA
Curator: Irina Zadov
2010 Denizen, Lobot Gallery, Oakland, CA
Curator: Niki Shapiro
2009 Invisible Homes, collaboration with CENTS, SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
Curator: Justin Hoover
2009 Raw, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
Curator: John K. Melvin
2009 Wonderland, collaboration with CENTS, installation at Civic Center Park, San Francisco, CA
Curator: Lance Fung
2008 New Landscapes, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
2007 Reconfigurations, Swell Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
2007 Negotiating Space, Swell Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
2005 Nine Square Grid, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
Curator: Emily Silver
2005 Craft Biennial, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland, OR
Jurors: Gerri Ondrizek, Ted Vogel, and Namita Wiggers
2001 Nothing & Everything, The Waiting Room Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Juror: Joseph del Pesco
2000 Commodity & Contradiction, 4x Gallery, Portland, OR
2000 Art On Paper, Maryland Federation of Art Gallery on the Circle, Annapolis, MD
Juror: Phyllis Rosensweig
1999 Texas National 99, SFA Gallery, Stephen Austin State Univ., Nacogdoches, TX
Juror: Donald Sultan
Crocker-Kingsley Exhibition catalog, Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA, 2022
Echoes: From Here To There catalog, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, 2019
Made in California Exhibition catalog, City of Brea Gallery, Brea, CA, 2019
Crocker-Kingsley Exhibition catalog, Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA, 2019
Flora and Fauna catalog, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2017
Palette catalog, Ampersand International Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2016
Wonderland catalog, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Council, San Francisco, CA, 2010
Southeastern Juried Exhibition catalog, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AB, 1999
Texas National 99 catalog, Stephen F. Austin State Univ. Gallery, Nacogdoches, TX, 1999
Positive/Negative 14 catalog, Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State Univ., Johnson City, TN, 1999
Scholastic Art Awards National Student Art Exhibition catalog, Scholastics, Inc, New York, NY, 1990
2016 EE Ford grant recipient from Marin Academy for ceramics class at Anderson Ranch Art Center
2005-08 Full tuition MFA Fellowship, San Francisco Art Institute
2005 Higher Education Art Educator of the Year, Oregon Art Education Association
1999 Award of Merit, First Tennessee Bank Exhibition, Carroll Reece Museum
1999 Honorable Mention, Southeastern Juried Exhibition, Mobile Museum of Art
1999 Residency merit scholarship, Vermont Studio Center
1993-95 Sylvia Leslie Young Herman Scholarship, Rhode Island School of Design
1990-91 Full tuition Scholastic Art Awards scholarship, Xavier University
1990 National Gold Key Award and two Regional Silver Key Awards, Scholastic Art Awards
1989 Scholarship to attend Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts residential program, June/July
Santa Rosa Sculpture Exhibit Weighs ‘Question of Balance’, Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, CA, 1/24/2024
Marin Independent Journal, July 12, 2023, image of work in art gallery listings
Sculpture Magazine, March/April 2023, art featured in advertisement for Pacific Rim Sculptors
Sculpture Magazine, March/April 2021, art featured in an advertisement for Pacific Rim Sculptors
Sonoma Index-Tribune, ‘Eerie orange’ day spurs local artist to curate online gallery, 1/1/2021
Echoes: From Here To There catalog, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA 2019
National Juried Exhibition, Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 2019
“Wonderland brightens Tenderloin, artists’ spirit,” San Francisco Chronicle, 11/8/2009
New York Times San Francisco Arts Monthly, Wonderland preview by Jean Schiffman, 9/27/2009
Xavier University blog – http://xavierartdept.blogspot.com/2010/07/xavier-art-alumni-artist-barry-beach.html
SFWeekly.com, review of Ways and Means exhibition by Traci Vogel, 4/16/2008
Thinking, Making, Learning, San Francisco Art Institute catalog, San Francisco, CA, 2006
The Beacon, University of Portland newspaper, review of Transitions installation, 10/24/2005
Education
MFA San Francisco Art Institute
BFA Rhode Island School of Design
