Beth Campbell
A note: On the interview concerning the 3 channel video “Same as me” from 2002 shows an abbreviated day in the life of a total of 18 different versions of the artist. Only viewed three at a time, the possible variations are synchronized across time and space or arise in daydreams of elsewhere or other than. For Campbell, the process of making the video revealed the thesis of the work. “It was very challenging to learn how to reenact my self…. it was hard to keep up with myself.”
Beth Campbell, (USA, born in Illinois), demonstrates the inextricable entanglements of past, present, and future through her thought-provoking sculptures, installations, ceramics and works on paper. Equal parts humorous, prescient and morbid, Campbell confronts an overwhelming multiple future, culled from research on the philosophies that fueled the early internet and AI. Campbell is best recognized for her drawings and mobiles that draw from a specific moment in her life, multiplied into a profusion of speculative possibilities. The drawings, each titled with the opening line, “My potential future based on my present circumstances…”, mimic the form of a tree diagram, a graphic structure used to visualize probability and hierarchy. This diagram becomes Campbell’s means to channel anxieties about an overwhelmingly multiple future. She began to make these drawings about her life as an artist in New York City in the late 1990’s. In them, she suggests taking a moment to look both forward and backwards, taking into account actions and positions and the circumstances that led to them.
Beth Campbell earned her BFA from Truman State University in 1993 (Kirksville, MO) and her MFA from Ohio University in 1997 (Athens, OH). She has held over a dozen solo exhibitions at galleries and institutions, including The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT (2017); Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH (2010); “Following Room” at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2007); Kate Werble Gallery, New York, NY (2020, 2017, 2012); the Public Art Fund, New York, NY (2007); White Columns, New York, NY (2000); and Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, NY (2008, 2005, 2004). Her work has been shown at MoMA PS1, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Artists Space, and the Bloomberg Financial Offices in Conjunction with Sculpture Center. Campbell has also been featured in exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art, (Pittsburgh, PA); Manifesta 7 (Italy); The Andy Warhol Museum, (Pittsburgh, PA); Contemporary Arts Center, (Cincinnati, OH); OK Center, (Linz, AT); and EX3 Centre for Contemporary Art, (Florence, IT). She has a large commission permanently on view in the Landmarks program at the University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX).
Campbell received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2011), a residency at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Arts/Industry Residency (2010), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Fellowship (2009) a Pollock- Krasner Foundation Grant (2006) and a Rema Hort Mann Foundation Art Grant (2000). She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Beth Campbell, My Potential Future Based on Present Circumstances (11/3/25), 2025 Pencil on paper 50 × 38 ½ inches (127.00 × 97.79 cm) Courtesy of the artist and Kate Werble Gallery, New York Photo credit by Adam Reich photography
Beth Campbell, There’s no such thing as a good decision (fawn), 2025 Powder coated steel rod and wire, enamel paint 40 × 40 × 33 inches (101.60 × 101.60 × 83.82 cm) Courtesy of the artist and Kate Werble Gallery, New York Photo credit by Adam Reich photography
Beth Campbell, lost socks, 2024 Tinted porcelain 2 ¼ × 6 ½ × 6 ¾ inches (5.72 × 16.51 × 17.15 cm) Courtesy of the artist and Kate Werble Gallery, New York Photo credit by Adam Reich photography
