Gene Beery

Gene Beery’s (b. 1937 Racine, WI; d. 2023 Sutter Creek, CA) highly influential yet vastly under-recognized practice spans over six decades. After moving to New York from his native Wisconsin in 1958, Beery began working as a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he was introduced to fellow artists and critics Dan Flavin, Robert Ryman, Lucy Lippard, and Sol LeWitt, the latter of whom would become the artist’s lifelong friend and staunchest supporter. Observing the importance of wall text within institutional settings, Beery began making text-based paintings with an urgent energy, working on scraps of wood and masonite. His disarmingly provocative work occupies a distinctive position of anti-painting painting: simultaneously critical of the art object's stature, while embracing the most salient form of artistic expression. Through his deceptively simple use of language, Beery’s work transmits incisive views on the machinations and aspirations of making art, with a caustic blend of humor and optimism.

In 1962, Beery was included in Recent Painting USA: The Figure, organized by Alfred H. Barr Jr. at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. One year later, he was given a solo exhibition at the legendary Alexander Iolas Gallery upon the recommendation of Max Ernst, who was an instant fan after seeing his work at MoMA. A retrospective exhibition was organized at Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg, Switzerland in 2019, marking the artist's first institutional solo presentation to date. Recent solo exhibitions include Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2022), Bodega, New York (2020), Cushion Works, San Francisco (2019), Shoot The Lobster, Los Angeles (2017), and Jan Kaps, Cologne (2016).

News

Condo London 2025
January 18–February 15, 2025
Derosia, hosted by Soft Opening, London


Exhibitions

Gene Beery
Portrait of the Artist as a Spandex Tuxedo

Sep 18 – Oct 29, 2022

Art Basel Miami Beach

Nov 30 – Dec 4, 2021

Store

Gene Beery's Universal Calendar

Spiral bound, 22 pages
8.5 x 11 inches (22 x 28 cm)
Photographs and design by Gene Beery
2008/ 2024

$20

Gene Beery

Hardcover, 172 pages
8 1/4 x 11 inches (21 x 27.9 cm)
Edited by Balthazar Lovay
Texts by Kenneth Goldsmith, Balthazar Lovay, Jo Melvin, Gregor Quack
Mousse, 2019


Press

November 30, 2023
Artforum
GENE BEERY (1937–2023)
October 24, 2022
ArtReview
Art and the Hand as a Transmitter of Thinking
October 1, 2020
Artforum
Gene Beery
April 2, 2020
The New York Times
3 Art Gallery Shows to Explore From Home
April 1, 2020
Frieze
Gene Beery: Transmissions From Logoscape Ranch
December 1, 2019
Artforum
Critics' Picks: Gene Beery
September 1, 2019
Artforum
Gene Beery
June 13, 2019
Financial Times
Gene Beery – why the cult American artist's time has come
October 20, 2016
Art in America
Life: 3 1/2 Stars
April 5, 2013
Artforum
Interviews: Gene Beery
March 1, 2013
artblogartblogartblog.com
Interview with Gene Beery
November 23, 2010
Art in America
Gene Beery
October 1, 2010
Artforum
Critics' Picks: Gene Beery
May 4, 2001
The New York Times
Art in Review: Gene Beery
January 1, 1980
Wadsworth Atheneum
Gene Beery Matrix 55