Beverly Semmes is an American artist who works with sculpture, textile, video, photography, performance, and large-scale installation. Born in Washington, D.C. and currently residing in New York City, she teaches sculpture at the Steinhart School of New York University and the Pratt Institute.
Beverly semmes freddie brice at kerry schuss nyc oct 2012
Early life and education
She received a BA in art history and, in 1982, a BFA, after attending the Boston Museum School and the Skowhegan School of Art. In 1987, she received an MFA from the Yale University School of Art, New Haven. Her work has appeared at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY; the Denver Art Museum; and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
Career and work
Her earliest shows were large-scale exhibitions in New York City in 1990, followed by similar installations in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her works were soon presented in European spaces including the Galleria Marabini in Bologna, Italy; the Camden Arts Centre in London, England; the Pecci Museum in Prato, Italy; the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland; and Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The Art/Fashion catalogue of the 1996 Biennale di Firenze stated, "Beverly Semmes's gargantuan dresses embody the myth that woman's appetite - sexual, intellectual, or material - would, if not restrained, expand to unimaginable proportions… Semmes, therefore, is a couturiere for the mythical, all-devouring female: from the femme fatale to the castrating phallic mother, from Medusa to Madonna."
Nancy Princenthal reviewed her exhibition In the O (2003) at Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, describing large pieces of orange chiffon fabric arranged surrounding a room, hanging from ceiling to floor. She said, "to step inside was to be embraced by a mammoth skirt." The installation also featured mats the size of floor rugs made of Band-Aids on the floor. Princenthal felt the title and installation, "suggest that viewers would find themselves both bodily encircled, and metaphorically inscribed within a narrative of unmistakably sexual coloration," and "she also entertains yearnings toward infantile, even prenatal merging with the maternal, body and soul."
Solo Exhibitions
2015: Galerie Lefebvre & Fils, Paris, France (upcoming)
1996: “Beverly Semmes: Big Silver,” Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA; Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf, Germany; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Michael Klein Gallery, NYC
1996: “She Moves,” Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, NYC
1995: “Beverly Semmes: Yellow Pool,” Kemper Museum for Contemporary Art and Design, Kansas City, MO
1995: “Beverly Semmes,” Baxter Gallery, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
1993: South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
1992: “Beverly Semmes,” The Sculpture Center, NYC
1990: “Special Projects,” P.S.1 Museum, Long Island City, NYC
1990: “Beverly Semmes,” Artists Space, NYC
Group Exhibitions
2015: Gallery Bugdahn and Kaimer, Düsseldorf, Germany
2015: “Flying Over The Abyss,” NEON & The Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, in Rethymnon, Crete, Greece 2015: “Come As You Are: Art of the 1990’s,” Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ ; Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA; The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; The Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, TX
2015: “Body Double,” Samsøn, Boston, MA
2014: “Manna: Masterworks from the Tufts University Permanent Art Collection,” curated by Amy Ingrid Schlegel, Tisch Family Gallery, Tufts University, Medford, MA
2014: “Almost But Not Quite,” Gallery Bugdahn and Kaimer, Düsseldorf, Germany
2014: “One Work,” Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY
2002: “Knockout Fairground,” Washington Square East Gallery, NYC
2002: “Almost Warm and Fuzzy: Childhood and Contemporary Art,” Cleveland Center for the Arts, Cleveland, OH; Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN
2002: “Rapture: Art’s Seduction by Fashion 1970-2002,” The Barbican Centre, London, UK
2002: “New York, New Work, Now,” The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH
2002: “Primal Screams and Song: Selections from the Permanent Collection,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
2002: Nicole Klagsburn Gallery, NYC
2002: “Dangerous Beauty,” The Jewish Community Center, NYC
2002: “Objects of Desire,” Jan Abrams Fine Arts, NYC
2001: “Recent Acquisitions,” The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
2001: “Zwischenraum #5: Sculpture and Object,” Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf, Germany
2001: “Objective Color,” Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2001: “Uncommon Threads,” Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2001: “Sonsbeek 9: Locus/Focus,” Arnhem, The Netherlands
2001: “Untragbar: Mode als Skulpture,” Museum für angewandte Kunst, Cologne, Germany
2001: “About the Bayberry Bush,” The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY
2001: “Issue 17: World View,” Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
2001: “Skowhegan Faculty 2001,” Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, ME
2001: “The First 10 Years: Selected Works from the Collection,” The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2001: “New Work: Recent Additions to the Collection,” Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
2001: “Almost Warm and Fuzzy: Childhood and Contemporary Art,” Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Caixa Forum Barcelona, Barcelona; MoMA PS1, NYC
2001: “Brooklyn Collects,” The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2001: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
2000: “The Likeness of Being: Contemporary Self-Portraits by Sixty Women Artists,” DC Moore Gallery, NYC
2000: “Almost Warm and Fuzzy: Childhood and Contemporary Art ,” Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; SMoCA, Scottsdale, AZ; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
2000: “Multiples,” Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf, Germany
2000: “Beauty Now,” Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
Ferguson, Bruce. Beverly Semmes, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 1996.
Philbrick, Harry; Nancy Princethal. Landscape Reclaimed, New Approaches to an Artistic Tradition, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, 1996.
Tucker, Marcia. A Labor of Love, New Museum, New York, NY, 1996.
Tucker, Marcia. Bad Girls, New Museum, 1995.
Ferris, Allison. Conceptual Textiles: Material Meanings, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 1995.
Georgia, Olivia. In Three Dimensions: Women Sculptors of the 90's, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, 1995, 51.
Gill, Sharon. The Outer Layer, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, 1995.
Gumpert, Lynne. Material Dreams, Takashimaya Gallery, 1995.
Broude, Norma, Mary D. Garrard, and Judith K. Brodsky. The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1994, 279.
Ramljak, Suzanne. Object Lessons: Feminine Dialogues With the Surreal, Huntington Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art, 1994.
Frankel, David; McEvilley, Thomas; McGonagle, Declan. From Beyond the Pale: Art and Artists at the Edge of Consensus, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 1994, 79.
Canning, Susan. Contemporary Women Artists and the Issue of Identity: My/Self: Your/Other, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, 1993.
Felshin, Nina. The Empty Dress. Clothing As Surrogate In Recent Art, Independent Curators Incorporated, 1993.
Tucker, Marcia; King, Elaine A; Riley, Jan; Shiffler, Robert. "Meddlesome & Meddlesome: Selections from the Collection of Robert J. Shiffler,” Contemporary Arts Center, 1993.
Larson, Kay. "American Art Today: Clothing as Metaphor,” Art Museum Florida International University, 1993.
