Bio
Natalie Beall (b. 1981, Atlanta, GA) invents new forms containing traces of functionality and fantasy. She earned her BFA from the University of Georgia and her MFA from Columbia University. Her most recent solo exhibition, Pastimes, took place in 2023 at Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York. Beall has participated in exhibitions at Fridman Gallery, Good Naked Gallery, Standard Space, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and the Wassaic Project, among other venues. Residencies include the Saltonstall Foundation, Ithaca, NY, the Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island, NY, the Cooper Union, and the Lower East Side Printshop. She is a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts and a 2023 NYSCA Individual Artist Commission Awardee. She lives and works in Salt Point, New York.
Statement
We come into contact with objects in our homes every day, but what are the lives of these items beyond their obvious functions? A lifelong fascination with the underlying energy of inanimate objects drives my work.
I create paper collages and mixed media wall sculptures of invented objects that hover between functionality and fantasy. Spare, symmetrical, and incorporating attributes of usefulness such as grids, hooks and holes, these forms contribute to a world of unnameable objects that seem unable to perform sensibly. These forms’ flattened, pared down states allude to their suspension between the everyday and the imagination.
I seek inspiration in open-ended learning toys, ambiguous storage devices, and obsolete domestic implements. Through transforming source imagery associated with the domestic domain and playing with notions of utility, I embrace a lineage of traditionally feminine and often overlooked creative pursuits that hold dormant potential.