OLIVER BEER
Oliver Beer studied musical composition at the Academy of Contemporary Music before reading Fine Art at the Ruskin, University of Oxford and film theory at the Sorbonne, Paris. He makes sculptures, installations, videos, and immersive live performances that reveal the hidden properties of objects, bodies, and architectural sites. Drawing on his musical training, his social and familial relationships often become the blueprint for multi-disciplinary works that engage with intimate and universal concerns, such as the transmission of musical memories and the personal and cultural meanings invested in the things we possess.
For his Resonance Project (2007–), vocal performances stimulate the natural harmonics of built structures, generating a disarmingly visceral relationship between the audience and interior space. By slicing and reassembling common objects to construct new meanings and forms, Beer’s sculptural practice dissects the material world and the traces we leave on it.
Beer’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; Centre Pompidou, Opéra Garnier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Palais de Tokyo and Chateau of Versailles, Paris; the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; WIELS, Brussels and the Sydney and Istanbul biennales. Beer will be included in 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.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2021
OPÉRA GARNIER, Paris, Composition for Mouths (Songs My Mother Taught Me)
27 September - 2 October 2021
VENET FOUNDATION, France, Murs du Son (Infinite Variations on a Theme)
17 July 2021
THE CLUB, Tokyo, Japan, Ghost Notes (Part I)
6 February - 16 March 2021
2020
GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, London, Oma
11 September - 24 October 2020
RIGA INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART (RIBOCA2), Riga, Latvia
20 August- 13 September 2020
VOORLINDEN MUSEUM, Wassenaar, Netherlands, Rendez-vous
1 June - 15 December 2020
2019
JAHILI FORT, QASR AL HOSN, Abu Dhabi, A Thousand Faces, in collaboration with the Louvre Abu Dhabi
21 November 2019 - 29 February 2020
PALAIS DE LA DÉCOUVERTE, FIAC 2019, Stray Voices
16 October 2019
POLA MUSEUM OF ART, Japan, Syncopation: Contemporary encounters with the Modern Masters
10 August - 1 December 2019
MET BREUER, New York, Oliver Beer: Vessel Orchestra
2 July - 11 August 2019
BIENNIAL OF QUEBEC CITY, Galerie des Arts Visuels
Opens 15th February 2019
GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, Paris Marais, Household Gods
12 January - 16 February 2019
UNIVERSITY NEW SOUTH WALES GALLERIES, Sydney Australia, Impossible Composition
5 January - 23 February 2019
2018
ANNA SCHWARTZ GALLERY, Melbourne, Australia, Impossible Composition curated by Anaïs Lellouche.
BIENNALE OF SYDNEY, Sydney Opera House & Art Gallery of New South Wales
2017
PALACE OF VERSAILLES, France, Voyage d'hiver
THADDAEUS ROPAC GALLERY, London, New Performance and Sculpture
IKON GALLERY, Birmingham, Oliver Beer
MAC VAL, France, Sans réserve
SOCLE DU MONDE BIENNALE 2017, Denmark, Good Fences Make Good Neighbours: Højskolevej 11
2016
POMPIDOU CENTRE, Paris, Polyphonies
NUIT BLANCHE, Paris, Live Stream
VG PRIZE EXHIBITION, London
AOYAMA/MEGURO, Tokyo, Japan, Imprisoned, Jailbreak, Imprisoned, Jailbreak
FRAENKEL LAB, San Francisco, Reanimation (Snow White)
2015
AOYAMA MEGURO, Daiwa Art Prize 2015, Tokyo, Life, Death and Tennis
ASAKUSA HOUSE, Daiwa Art Prize 2015, Tokyo, Deconstructing Sound
WATERMILL CENTER, New York, Making Tristan, Watermill Center artist in residence
KILIC ALI PASA HAMAM, Istanbul, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac / Istanbul Biennale, Call to Sound
DAIWA ART PRIZE Daiwa Foundation Art Prize Exhibition 2015, London
2014
GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, Diabolus in Musica
MUSEE D'ART CONTEMPORAIN MAC Lyon, Rabbit Hole
CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU, Paris, Oliver Beer – Prospectif Cinéma
MOMA PS1 / Curated by Palais de Tokyo, New York, The Resonance Project
LE FORUM, HERMES, Tokyo, Condensation
MEESSEN DE CLERCQ, Brussels, Saint Jérôme
VILLA ARSON, Nice, Oliver Beer / Shingo Yoshida
2013
GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC PANTIN, Composition for Hearing an Architectural Space
BIENNALE DE LYON / PALAIS DE TOKYO, Lyon, The Present is Unfinished
PALAIS DE TOKYO, Paris, Nouvelles Vagues
IKON GALLERY, Birmingham, Outside-In, Permanent installation
WIELS CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART / EXPERIENZ
THALIE ART PROJECT - ART BRUSSELS, The Resonance Project
POMPIDOU CENTRE, Paris, The Resonance Project: Deep and Meaningful
PALAIS DE TOKYO, Paris, KLANG
2012
SAATCHI GALLERY, 100 Curators
PALAIS DE TOKYO, Paris, KLANG
2012 BIENNALE DE BELLEVILLE, Paris
2012 WHITSTABLE BIENNALE, Kent
NUIT BLANCHE 2012, Paris
PALAIS DE TOKYO, Paris, (Entre)Ouverture
GALERIE DE ROUSSAN, Paris, La Part de l’Ombre
MENAGERIE DE VERRE, Paris
FRAC CORSICA, Corsica
2011
IKON GALLERY, Birmingham, Autumn Almanac 2011
SAATCHI GALLERY, The Big Chill 2011
OLD VIC TUNNELS, London, Mindful
2010
IKON GALLERY, Birmingham
SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM, London
SELFRIDGES, London, Anticipation
MURMURART, London
RUSKIN SHORTS, Oxford
20 HOXTON SQUARE, London, Concrete and Glass
DNA GALLERY, Berlin, Reflections
LONDON ART FAIR, Photo50
2009
SAATCHI GALLERY, A Foundation, London New Sensations
RESONANCE FM, London UK / Online
RUSKIN SCHOOL OF DRAWING AND FINE ART, University of Oxford, Degree Show
UK RUSKIN SHORTS, Oxford, Phoenix Picturehouse
2008
POMPIDOU CENTRE, Paris, The Resonance Project (unofficial)
20 EVENTI, Rome
MODERN ART OXFORD, Oxford, Box Ladder
BEACONSFIELD GALLERY, London, Performance with Matmos
VIVAROSI GALLERY, Budapest
PRIZES / RESIDENCIES
2017 Artist in residence Sydney Opera House
2015 Daiwa Foundation Art Prize (Winner)
2015 Watermill Center, NY, artist in residence
2013 Villa Arson artist in residence
2012 Fondation Hermès artist in residence
2011 Palais de Tokyo artist in residence2010 Arts Council award and commission
2009 Saatchi Gallery News Sensations (winner)
2007 Oxford University Scholarship
PUBLICATIONS (select)
2017 Oliver Beer - Composition for London, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, text by Ben Eastham, Martin Germann, Robert Wilson
2017 Oliver Beer, Ikon Gallery, text by Mami Kataoka, Jonathan Watkins
2014 Oliver Beer, MAC Lyon and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, text by Isabelle Bertolotti, Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, Matthieu Lelièvre, Thierry Raspail, Jonathan Watkins
2013 Oliver Beer, cahier de résidence. Fondation Hermès, text by Clément Dirier, Editions Actes Sud
2013 Voyage en territoires partagés, dir. Charlotte Moth, including a text by Oliver Beer, Editions Cercle d'Art
COLLECTIONS
Pompidou Centre Permanent Collection
CNAP French National Collection
Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon (MAC) Permanent Collection
FRAC Ile de France Le Plateau, Paris
FRAC Midi-Pyrénées, les Abattoirs, Toulouse
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Permanent Collection, Paris
Zabludowicz 176 Collection, London
Ikon Gallery Foyer Collection, Birmingham
MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia
Kramlich Collection, San Francisco
TEACHING
Royal College of Art, London
Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford
Berklee College of Music, Boston
Architectural Association School of Architecture