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Almine Rech

Oliver Beer

Oliver Beer (British, born 1985) creates sculptures, installations, videos, and immersive live performances that reveal the hidden properties and musicality of objects, bodies, and architectural sites. His social and familial relationships often become the blueprint for multidisciplinary works that engage with intimate and universal concerns, such as the transmission of musical memories and the personal and cultural meanings invested in the objects we possess. For his Resonance Project (2007‒), vocal performances stimulate the natural harmonics of built structures, creating a disarmingly visceral relationship between the audience and interior space. Beer’s sculptural practice dissects the material world and the traces we leave on it by slicing and reassembling common objects to create new meanings and forms.

The artist’s work has been the subject of many solo and group exhibitions, notably at Met Breuer, Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA PS1, New York; London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, London; Centre Pompidou, Opéra Garnier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Palais de Tokyo and Chateau of Versailles, Paris; the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon; Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Australia; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; WIELS, Brussels and the Sydney, Istanbul and Venice biennales. Beer was part of the British Art Show 9 and has also held residencies at the Palais de Tokyo, the Watermill Centre, Sydney Opera House and the Fondation Hermès. He studied musical composition at the Academy of Contemporary Music, London; visual art at the University of Oxford; and theory of cinema at the Sorbonne, Paris.

Selected artworks

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Resonance Painting (Make Out in My Car), 2024

    Oliver Beer Resonance Painting (Make Out in My Car), 2024

    Pigment on canvas 
    200 x 150 cm, 78 1/2 x 59 in (unframed)
    203.7 x 153.7 x 6 cm, 80 x 60 1/2 x 2 1/2 in (framed)

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Cat Orchestra, 2024

    Oliver Beer Cat Orchestra, 2024

    37 hollow cat vessels and sculptures, plinths, microphones, speakers, audio equipment
    Dimensions variable

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Recomposition (Nine Lives), 2024

    Oliver Beer Recomposition (Nine Lives), 2024

    Signed and dated at the back
    Ceramic cats, terracotta cats, violin bow, violin strings, guitar strings, laughing gas canister, old clock mechanism, coloured pencils, mother of pearl, scattered ceramic, instrument components, guitar pick, jewellery, broach, cat jewellery, cat pins, pearls, musical score and paper aeroplane; resin, black pigment
    40 x 30 cm - 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in (unframed) 
    43.8 x 34 x 6 cm - 17 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 2 1/2 in (framed)

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Resonance Painting (Going Back To My Roots), 2024

    Oliver Beer Resonance Painting (Going Back To My Roots), 2024

    Pigment on canvas
    150 x 150 cm, 59 x 59 in (unframed)
    153.5 x 153.5 x 6 cm, 60 1/2 x 60 1/2 x 2 1/3 in (framed)

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Resonance Painting (A Case of You), 2024

    Oliver Beer Resonance Painting (A Case of You), 2024

    Pigment on canvas
    130 x 130 cm, 51 x 51 in (unframed)
    133 x 133 cm, 52 x 52 in (framed)

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Resonance Painting (The Other Lover), 2024

    Oliver Beer Resonance Painting (The Other Lover), 2024

    Pigment on canvas
    153.6 x 203.7 x 6 cm
    60 1/2 x 80 x 2 1/2 in

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Resonance Painting (Down by the River to Pray), 2023

    Oliver Beer Resonance Painting (Down by the River to Pray), 2023

    Pigment on canvas
    200 x 150 cm, 78 1/2 x 59 in (unframed)
    204 x 154 x 5.5 cm, 80.3 x 60 x 2.1 in (framed)

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Resonance Painting (Lakeside 1), 2023

    Oliver Beer Resonance Painting (Lakeside 1), 2023

    Pigment on canvas
    206 x 306 cm
    81 x 120 1/2 in

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Recomposition (Succès de Scandale, after Picasso), III, 2023

    Oliver Beer Recomposition (Succès de Scandale, after Picasso), III, 2023

    Musical score for ‘Parade’ by Erik Satie, postcard of ‘Harlequin, 1915’ by Pablo Picasso, winged dog keyring, curtain tassels, neck ruff, striped straws, fabric wings, clip-on pony tails, sailor's hat, condom, plastic grapes, foliage, flowers, wigs, Mona Lisa fridge magnet, model Roman pillars, metallic tights, guitar parts, drum, trumpet part, guitar strings, harlequin black and white fabric, red fabric, blue fabric, jewellery, laughing gas canister, mother of pearl, colouring pencils, cigarette butts
    130 x 130 cm, 51 x 51 in (unframed)
    137 x 137 x 6 cm, 54 x 54 x 2 1/4 in (framed)

  • Oliver Beer,                                      Resonance Painting (Kiss It Better), 2023

    Oliver Beer Resonance Painting (Kiss It Better), 2023

    Pigment on canvas
    130 x 130 cm
    51 x 51 in

Videos

  • Oliver Beer – Studio Visit with ARTE Television
  • Artist Interview—Oliver Beer: Vessel Orchestra | Met Exhibitions

Selected press