Since the mid-1970s, Ericka Beckman (b. 1951, Hampstead, NY) has forged a signature visual language in film, video, installation, and photography. Often shot against black, spatially ambiguous backdrops, her moving image works are structured according to the logic of childª¡s play, games, folklore, or fairy tales, and populated by archetypical characters and toy-like props in bright, primary colours. Throughout her work, Beckman engages profound questions of gender, role-playing, competition, power and control.
The publication will include selected works spanning thirty years of Beckmanª¡s career, providing the first opportunity to survey her contribution to the art world. With new scholarly essays on Beckmanª¡s work that offer an art-historical consideration of her early Super-8 Films and a critical situating of the artistª¡s ongoing preoccupation with the structures of games, gambling, and capitalism, the exhibition catalogue contextualizes Beckmanª¡s practice on the occasion of this major survey exhibition. More than 20 colour images in the catalogue include photo- documentation of Beckmanª¡s works since 1983 and installation views of the MIT List Center exhibition.
The publication will include selected works spanning thirty years of Beckmanª¡s career, providing the first opportunity to survey her contribution to the art world. With new scholarly essays on Beckmanª¡s work that offer an art-historical consideration of her early Super-8 Films and a critical situating of the artistª¡s ongoing preoccupation with the structures of games, gambling, and capitalism, the exhibition catalogue contextualizes Beckmanª¡s practice on the occasion of this major survey exhibition. More than 20 colour images in the catalogue include photo- documentation of Beckmanª¡s works since 1983 and installation views of the MIT List Center exhibition.
