Ross Palmer Beecher
Quilts • Assemblage • Prints • About
Quilts
Flags
Assemblage
Famous Folk
Patriotism and Slavery
Film Directors
Beecher's constructions and format reflect equipment used in film: cameras, viewfinders, and even the film itself. The piece titled "Tim Burton" (below) features Burton's face in a space between two film canisters, as though being unrolled: Burton's face appears as it would on a filmstrip. In "Andy Warhol," Warhol's face appears only after one lifts the "camera" front, the piece constructed out of sewn metal and hinge: Allen is inside the camera, much like Allen is the subject of all of his films.
- Text courtesy of Bank of America Gallery
Prints
Beecher's prints are impressions taken from the artist's paintings on wood. She carves the wood block and then paints the image with enamel paint. With an image she particularly likes, Beecher will make state impressions when the blocks are carved but not painted. She generally will make these impressions as a way of cataloguing the image. Occasionally she will pull an edition, but usually these impressions are not editioned.
About
Exhibitions
Quilts, July 3 - August 23, 2014
Quilts and Presidential Portraits, May 1 - 31, 2003
The Great Film Directors, May 27 - June 15, 2000
Recent Work, February 5 - March 1, 1998
Anatomy Studies, May 4 - 28, 1995
Carved and Painted Assemblages, March 3 - April 3, 1994
Assemblage: Flags & Quilts, November 29 - December 23, 1990
Painted Assemblage, December 1 - 24, 1988
Paintings, Assemblages, September 3 - 27, 1987
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Born in 1957, Greenwich, CT. Resides in Seattle.
Beecher was born in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1957 and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. She moved to Seattle in 1979 and has been represented by the Greg Kucera Gallery since 1984. Beecher has created public artworks for the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Vashon Island landfill, Lumen Field, and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. She is the recipient of a Seattle Arts Commission’s Artist in the City Grant in 1995 and 1997. The artist is the recipient of the Seattle Art Museum’s 2002 Betty Bowen Artist Award. Beecher has work in the collection of Portland Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, OR, and Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA.
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EDUCATION
1975-78
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence: painting, printmaking, illustrationSELECTED ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022
Quilts and Assemblages, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle2020
Quilts and Assemblages, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle2015
Americana, Robert Graves Gallery, Wenatchee WA2014
Quilts, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle2011
Ross Palmer Beecher: Americana, Hallie Ford Museum, Willamette University, Salem, OR2008
Black Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA curated by Sandra Jackson Dumont2003
AMERICANA: Quilts, Flags and Famous Folk, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle2000
The Great Film Directors, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle
The Great Film Directors, Bank of American Gallery, Seattle1998
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle1997
Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA1995
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle1994
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle1990
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle1989
San Francisco Airport Exhibition, San Francisco
Espiritu Gallery, New York1988
Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle1987
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle1986
Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle1979
Merry X-mas, Love, America, Roscoe Louie Gallery, SeattleSELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016
Metalmorphosis, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA. Curators' Choices, Collection of Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom, Museum of Art, WSU, Pullman, WA2015
Cut & Bent, Bainbridge Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island, WA
Saving The Environment: Sustainable Art, Shack Art Center, Everett, WA2014-5
Group Show curated by Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR2012
Three Quilts, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA Reclaimed: Artists working with Recycled or Repurposed Materials, Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery, Seattle Portable Works Collection, Seattle, WA
The Art of Recycling, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA
New Museum Acquisitions, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Recycled Art, Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center Word Play, Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery, Seattle Portable Works Collection, Seattle, WA2010
Made in the USA, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA
Show of Hands Northwest Women Artisits 1880-2010, Whatcom Museum at the Lightcatcher, Bellingham, WA
Seattle Public Utilities Portable Works, Northwest Mid-Career Artists, Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery, Seattle, WA Seattle Art Museum Gallery, Seattle, WA2009
Finds Refined, Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA
Eco Art, Sammamish City Hall, Sammamish, WA2008
Fathom, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX2006
Art of Recycling, Hallie Ford Museum , Salem Oregon
Art in Embassies Program, US Embassy , Austria
Java Divas, Kenneth J. Minneart Center for the Arts Gallery, Olympia, WA
Art: Renew, Recylcle, Recreate, Kirklannd City Hall, Kirkland, WA2005
West Edge Invitational Sculpture Show, Seattle WA
Faces For Life, Puget Sound Blood Center, Seattle, WA Henry Bash, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington2004
VEXED, Kittredge Gallery, the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, curated by Esther Luttikhuizen2003
Art in Embassies Program, US Embassy , Denmark2002-03
Hero/Anti Hero, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle2002
High Art: Art of the Bank at America Tower, Bank of American Gallery, Seattle
States of the Union: Before and After, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle
Sweet and Wild: Animals in Contemporary Art, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle
The Portrait Project, Bumbershoot Festival of the Arts, Seattle Center Skeleton Art Gallery, Santa Fe2001
Dis-Figured, Seattle Art Museum, curated by Tara Reddy, Assistant Curator, Modern Art2000
Sheen of Silver, Weight of Air: Contemporary Aluminum, Schneider Museum of Art, Distant Echoes, Greg Kucera Gallery
Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR The Art of Protest, Seattle Asian Art Museum, WA1999
From Head to Toe, Graystone Gallery, San Francisco, CA
A Good Eye: Artists at the Ball Park, Seafirst Gallery, Seattle1998
Testimonies: The Art of Ross Palmer Beecher and Barbara Thomas, Seattle Art Museum
Memories, Secrets, Dreams, Northwest Building Corporation, Seattle, curated by Mahler Fine Arts
Local Press, Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA1997
20th Century Block Prints, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Celebrity: Fame, Fortune, Heroism, and Infamy, Olympic Room, Seattle Center
West Coast Painting and Sculpture 1997, Oceanside Museum of Art, CA
Surrogacy, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle1997
Civil Progress: Life in Black America, Mary Ryan Gallery, New York
Civil Progress: Life in Black America, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle1996
TEXtures, Rental Sales Gallery, Seattle Art Museum1995
Surface Design 1995, D.O.T. Gallery, Portland, OR
Pinocchio: Sculpture Made of Carved and Painted Wood, Department of Art Gallery, Eastern
Washington University, Cheney, curated by Sean Elwood
The Traditional Impulse, Greg Kucera Gallery (catalog)
Curatorial Eye of James Archer, Index Gallery, Clark College, Vancouver, WA
Beyond Traditions, Index Gallery, Clark College, Vancouver, WA1994
Glories of the Game: The Art of Baseball, SAFECO Plaza, Seattle1993
Screams with Laughter: Storytelling in Northwest Craft, Bumbershoot, Seattle Center1992
For the Birds, Outside-in, Los Angeles
Carnival Art, Rental Sales Gallery, Seattle Art Museum
Seattle Invitational, Security Pacific Gallery, Seattle
Games, Pacific Arts Center, Seattle1991
The Artist in the Art: Self-Portraits, Bumbershoot 1991, Seattle Center
National Governors Association Exhibit, Convention Center, Seattle
American Folk and Outsider Art, Outside-in, Los Angeles
Collaborators, Tacoma Art Museum
Celebrations and Ceremonies, Security Pacific gallery, Seattle
Metaphor from the Every Day, University of Washington School of Art Gallery, Seattle
View from the Edge, Index Gallery, Clark College, Vancouver, WA1990
God and Country, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle
Imagination Celebration, Seattle Center House1988
The Foot Show - Art, History and Ethnology, Community Arts, Inc., Los Angeles (catalog) Olympia & York/O’M & M Associates, Los Angeles
In the Folk Tradition: Contemporary Wood Sculpture, The Mitchell Museum, Mt Vernon, IL (catalog)1987
Pacific Northwest Textile Show, The Public Art Space, Seattle, Center
Homes for the Arts, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle1986
La Muerte, Blue Star Gallery, San Antonio
Pacific Northwest Juried Art Show, Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, WA
Seattle Sub-Culture Underground Mail Art Show, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle
Pacific Northwest Arts Exhibition, Bellevue, WA1985
Day of the Dead, Cameron University, Lawton, OK
Neo-York/Seattle, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle1983
Western Washington Fair Exhibition, Puyallup, WA1982
Pacific Northwest Arts Exhibition, Bellevue, WA
Ronald and Nancy Show, Greenwood Gallery, Seattle, curated by Ruby Montana1978
Pacific Northwest Arts Exhibition, Bellevue, WAAWARDS, COMMISSIONS, AND GRANTS
2020
Yvonne Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement2019
Washington Elementary School, Washington State Arts Commission
Sunnyside School District, Sunnyside, WA2005
Artist Trust/WSAC Fellowship Recipient
Ellensburg School District, Washington State Arts Commission Ellensburg High School2002
Betty Bowen Memorial Award, Seattle Art Museum
Selected Public and Corporate Collections1998-99
Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium, Seattle1997
Seattle Artist, Seattle Arts Commission1996-97
Installation, Harborview Medical Center, King County Arts Commission1995
Seattle Artist, Seattle Arts Commission1992
Commission for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Port of Seattle1989
Tacoma School District, Delong Elementary School, Washington State Arts Commission1987
Homes for the Arts, 9-1-1 Arts Center, Seattle1983-85
Community Psychiatric Clinic, Seattle1984
First Place, Bear Skin Rug Crazy Quilt, Western Washington Fair, Puyallup, WASELECTED PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Boeing Headquarters, Chicago
Bailey Boushay House, AIDS Housing of Washington, Seattle
Bellevue Downtown Association, Bellevue, WA
City of Seattle, Water Department
Dain Bosworth, Inc., Minneapolis Ellensburg School District, Washington State Arts Commission Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA Northwest Building Corporation, Seattle
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR Progressive Corporation, Mayfield Village, OH
Liberty Mutual, Seattle T-Mobile Park, (Mariner's Stadium), Seattle
Seattle Arts Commission, City Portable Works Collection
Seattle Arts Commission, Special Northwest Collection Seattle Art Museum
Seattle University, Seattle, WA Swedish Hospital Medical Center, Seattle Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle Walker, Richer & Quinn, Seattle
Washington State Arts Commission, Shoreline School District
Washington State Arts Commission, South Kitsap School District Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia School District
Winston & Strawn, ChicagoINSTALLATIONS
1993-94
Vashon Island Landfill, 1% for Art Project, Vashon Island, WA1992
Water Clock Installation, Bumbershoot, Seattle CenterARTIST IN RESIDENCE
1993 to present
Bailey-Boushay House; AIDS Housing of Washington, Seattle1992
University of Washington Medical Center, SeattleVIDEO/DOCUMENTARIES
2007
Laughing Dog Pictures for Washington State Arts Commission2006
Seattle Art Museum -
Crosscut
ArtSEA: Bird art for the dog days of Seattle summer
August 18, 2022
by Brangien Davis
Oil paint on wire tin, aluminum and levels
35 x 35 inches
$7,000