Nicole Beck
Sample Work
Astroterra, 2007, 8'x 6'x 6', Tile mosaic & enamel paint on steel.
Perspective, 2006, 8'x 6'x 3", Tile & glass mosaic on panel, Elgin Police Station, IL. An Urban Gateways Art Options collaborative public art project under the apprenticeship of Nicole Beck.
Snake Gourd Chamber Maze, 2004, 40'x 100', Grant Park on Michigan Ave., 64 varietals with a 100' gourd arbor. A City of Chicago Public Art Project "Artists in the Gardens."
Snake Gourd Chamber Maze Mural, 2007, 11'x 30', Latex mural, West Bucktown, Chicago. This project was commissioned by the Bloomingdale Mural Project and is an abstracted depiction of the landscape plan for the project in Grant Park.
Quasarc, 2001, 10'x 25'x 5', Painted steel & glass optics. Site view: Pier Walk, Navy Pier, Chicago. Presently sited at the Woodridge Professional Building, West Peoria, IL, Corporate Collection.
Artist Discipline: Visual Arts
Artist Bio
Nicole Beck has completed many public art commissions and is exhibited nationwide. In Chicago, her work can be found at DeVry University, the ESPN Zone, the WestTown Chicago Avenue business corridor, in Lake View at Diversey Harbor and a 30' painted mural "Snake Gourd Chamber Maze" in West Bucktown that was based upon a public art project she did in Grant Park. Beck is also Treasurer on the Board of Directors of Chicago Sculpture International.
The beauty and rhythms in her work emanate from a holistic approach to art, nature and science. She fabricates her own sculptures which are entirely her own quirky forms. Process is integral to the work. Among her many gallery and group shows are The Artist Project, Art Chicago, PierWalk, Flatfile Galleries, the Evanston Art Center, Krasl Art Museum, Rockford Art Museum, South Bend Airport, the cities of Orland Park, Skokie, & Peoria, IL, Cedar Rapids, IA, Chattanooga, TN, Greensboro, NC, Charlottesville, VA and Roanoke, VA, Oakton Community College, Purdue University, Western Michigan University, Tampa's Nations Bank Plaza, and the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Her work has been represented by several galleries, but she is presently self-represented and her work can be accessed at www.nicolebeck.com.
Commissions include DeVry University, ESPN Zone, Sarasota, FL, West Bucktown's Bloomingdale Mural Project, Chicago's WestTown and Wicker Park/Bucktown's Chambers of Commerce, and collaborative works with Urban Gateways Art Options for the Elgin Police Station, Chicago Public Schools Adminstrative Offices and for Chicago's Morganway Community Park at 79th & Morgan in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.
Artist Statement
At the heart of my sculpture beats the rhythm and beauty of the dynamic systems found in nature and the sciences. Basic geometries balance form with ideas. The elements in my sculpture fuse to create quirky poems in space.
My repetoire of media include steel, stainless, bronze, wood, paper, glass, paint, tile mosaic and living plants! I have also been very active in creating collaborative murals and mosaics for public spaces with diverse groups of apprentice artists in their teens.
Educational Philosophy
Nicole Beck loves to teach art and encourages students of all ages to explore their creative impulses as a passageway to learning. She is especially attuned to assimilating creative writing assignments into art projects or to facilitate group collaborations into permanent public works of art. Curricular connections can be used to customize art projects. Beck can create any kind of curriculum based upon 2-D or 3-D artworks, and including more ambitious murals, mosaics or sculpture installations if a strong institutional infrastructure is created in conjunction with the Urban Gateways planning staff.
Links
www.nicolebeck.com
www.chicagosculpture.wordpress.com
www.sculpture.org/portfolio/sculptorPage.php?sculptor_id=1000417
www.chicagoartistsresource.org/visual-arts/node/351
www.artworldchicago.com/becknicole.html
www.palmdesertartistregistry.com/nicole_beck.htm
Nicole's Facebook profile