Carl Beam was born in M’Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island in 1943. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria and continued his classical art studies in the MFA program at the University of Alberta. Early influences during Beam’s formal studies included Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and especially Robert Rauschenberg.
The latter’s influence is evident in Beam’s frequent use of photo transfer and photo emulsion in his works on paper, similar to the “found” images from print media in Rauschenberg’s innovative lithographs and other graphic media. Beam was particularly fond of repeating icons like Christopher Columbus and Sitting Bull, using animals and birds and reptiles, as well as self-portraits in various moods. Beam’s biographical emphasis places him within the dual cultures that are his heritage; Ojibwa and European. He usually combines his own image with other topics, texts, and visual representations. This is a purposeful exploration and scrutiny of not only his physical self, but also examining his cultural, environmental and political relationships.
What Carl Beam does is not 'collage' - an art form which is deliberately random - it is 'montage', where images are mounted together in a thought-out process to point out their connections and dissonances. Actively engaged with postmodernist art practices, Beam developed an aesthetic that spanned diverse mediums including multimedia paintings, prints and constructions. His work, executed in diverse media, such as drawing, watercolor, etching, non-silver photography, photo emulsion, installation, and ceramics, is highly different from the Woodlands School of Art associated with Anishinaabe artists, though it represents a continuation of the themes explored by its artists. Juxtaposing diverse referents - popular culture, art history, personal and collective memory - Beam's work rejects Western historical and cultural hegemony, collapses hierarchies and incorporates Native worldview on equal footing.
In 1986, the National Gallery of Canada acquired its first work by a contemporary Canadian Native artist and this was Carl Beam's The North American Iceberg (1985). At the time, the acquisition was regarded as "a landmark event. Beam has been exhibited throughout North America as well as in Italy, Denmark, Germany and China. His works are found in major Canadian and international collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y.
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Family by Beam, Carl |
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Rulers by Beam, Carl |
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Flux by Beam, Carl |
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| Neoglyph 2 by Beam, Carl |
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Traffic by Beam, Carl |
1992, The Colombus Site, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
1997, Transitions, The Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, France
1999, Reconstructing Reason: the Koan of Carl Beam, Carleton University Art Gallery, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON 2000, Works from Novak Graphics, Shanghai, China
2002, The Whale of our Being, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, ON
1997, Transitions, The Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, France
1999, Reconstructing Reason: the Koan of Carl Beam, Carleton University Art Gallery, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON 2000, Works from Novak Graphics, Shanghai, China
2002, The Whale of our Being, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, ON
Collections
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
Museum of Civilization, Hull, PQ
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, ON
The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Museum of Civilization, Hull, PQ
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, ON
The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Work Cited
