ARTIST'S STATEMENT
For the images I produce as an artist, I have conducted research in Niger, West Africa, where I lived for three years. My art involves an exploration of the Nigerien landscape, the Djarma and Fulani cultures and the art forms they create. This abstract work portrays ritual and tradition in Nigerien culture.
To create my imagery, I work from a variety of references. Relationships among color, shape, and texture come together to form fluid and grid-like compositions. Color dominates the images and dictates the media employed to produce them. This portfolio combines painting with oil on wood, drawing with oil paint, collage, ink drawings, mixed-media works, charcoal and graphite on paper.
Gretchen Beck served as Professor of Art, Chair of the Art Department, Curator and on the faculty at Concordia University, Irvine, CA, for eleven years. Currently, she is a professional artist.
Recently, she has created a series of exhibitions for the following galleries: Contemporary Painting Exhibition, Arts Visalia Visual Art Center Gallery, Visalia, CA; Dumi Dumi Goy, FC Gallery at CANO, Oneonta, NY; San Marino League: Art Matters 2021, Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA; Dreaming of Equality, Reynolds Gallery, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA; Christmas Exhibition, NoonPowell Fine Art Gallery, London, England; Visual Variations: Figurative to Abstract, NoonPowell Fine Art Gallery, London, England; Purely Abstract, Fine Line Creative Arts Center, Kavanagh Gallery, St. Charles, IL; Brand 48 Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper, Brand Library and Art Center Gallery, Glendale, CA; Second Annual Exhibition, The Idaherma Museum of Art Foundation, Princeton, NJ; 2020 small works - Big Talent, Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA; In the Abstract, Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Galex 54 National Competition & Exhibition, Joanne Goudie Gallery, Galesburg Civic Art Center, Galesburg, IL; Consciousness of Abstraction: Beyond Literal Appearance, Arc Gallery, Chicago, IL; The Mixed Media Show 2020, Core New Art Space Gallery, Lakewood, CO; and Children’s Mercy Kansas City Benefit Group Art Exhibition, Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO.
She exhibits and discusses her work in group and solo exhibitions in galleries, on national and international levels. For further information about her work in the visual arts, please contact her at gretchenjo.beck@gmail.com