Rapaport Lecture Series: Kevin Beasley

Kevin Beasley lives and works in New York. His practice spans sculpture, photography, sound, and performance, while centering on materials of cultural and personal significance, from raw cotton harvested from his family’s property in Virginia to sounds gathered using contact microphones. Beasley alters, casts, and molds these diverse materials to form a body of works that acknowledge the complex, shared histories of the broader American experience, steeped in generational memories. In March 2023, Kevin Beasley released A View of a Landscape, a 300-page book and double LP record, conceived as equal elements and designed together. The publication was produced in collaboration with the Renaissance Society and The University of Chicago Press. Beasley was born in 1985 in Lynchburg, VA. He received his BFA from The College for Creative Studies, Detroit in 2007 and his MFA from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT in 2012.

The Rapaport Lectureship in Contemporary Art Fund, established in 1999 at Amherst College, provides support for an annual lecture by an artist, art writer, or art critic on some aspect of contemporary art. The goal of the Rapaport Lectureship is to increase awareness and appreciation of contemporary art among students and the community. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Photo by David Schulze