Kim Beck

Adjutant, 2015

Adjutant is a temporary mural installed on the concrete wall beneath the 10th Street Bypass ramp for the Fort Duquesne Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA. The mural is composed of images of oversized common weeds using silhouettes in shades of black, gray and white. The mural is inspired by a riverfront scene described by Henry David Thoreau in his 1906 journal: "There they stood in the midst of the open river on this shallow and weedy bar in the sun the leisurely sentries lazily pluming themselves as if the day were too long for them. They gave a new character to the stream. Adjutant they were to my idea of the river, these two winged men.” A team of some 150 volunteers organized by Riverlife Pittsburgh executed the work June 6–14, 2015, during the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. The mural is part of #TBD, a concept for two public art projects that will bring dramatic changes and attention to the downtown Allegheny riverfront underneath the Fort Duquesne Bridge.

Wildish, 2014

Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia commissioned Kim Beck to create a mural for the Room for Growth series of projects. Wildish, a mural designed and created by Beck at the Conestoga Recreation Center in West Philadelphia, features an assortment of plants from the surrounding neighborhood. Over the course of the project, students from the adjacent Mastery Charter School learned that many of these plants – often dismissed as weeds – have much deeper lineage as food, medicine and more. The final mural incorporates the research and artwork of Mural Arts students, and serves as a cornerstone to a larger initiative to modernize the Conestoga Recreation Center.

The Sky Is the Limit/NYC, 2011

The Sky Is the Limit/NYC, consisted of fleeting messages from advertising billboards and storefront signage written by a skywriting plane over Manhattan. Executed October 10, 2011 in connection with her project on the High Line (New York City), phrases like "Last Chance" or "Now Open" gradually unfolded, and then faded back into the air, inviting viewers to interpret the language in their own unique way. With the uncertainty in the economy, The Sky Is the Limit/NYC was intended to play upon universal longings for hope and change by engaging the most potent symbol of longing in the landscape: the sky.

“We don't really know what's happening in our economy," Ms. Beck said. "I'm hoping there's an optimism in that final text, and that it comes together as a bit of a narrative. That's my hope; to think positive."

Space Available, 2011–2012

Space Available, was installed March 4, 2011 – January 2012 on rooftops along Washington Street, between West 13th Street and Gansevoort Street in [New York City]. Intended to be viewed from the High Line, the exhibition was commissioned by Friends of the High Line.

Exhibition and Public Collections

Beck has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the US and abroad, and her work is in the collections of numerous public collections.

Professional Affiliations

Beck is an Associate Professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University