ART FOR CHANGE and Prospect Park Alliance present Park of Dreams, a public art exhibition featuring larger-than-life work by leading New York-based contemporary artists, on view now through Spring 2024. Included in this exhibition is Brooklyn-based artist Kelly Beeman.
A self-taught artist, Kelly Beeman took to drawing as a hobby from a young age. Influenced by her artistic parents, she grew fascinated with the technique of applying watercolor, which propelled her to continue pursuing drawing as an interest after graduation. Now known for her watercolor and oil paintings, Beeman features nonchalant-looking subjects partaking in solitude or social leisure, characterized by clean fluid lines, fields of color, and fashion ensembles as a recurring motif. Drawing inspiration from childhood nostalgia and the everyday, Beeman’s paintings invite contemplation of deeper layers of narrative and interiority.
Kelly Beeman’s Park Bench is available for purchase at artforchange.com, with 5% of the purchase price, up to $15,000, of each limited edition print sold being donated to the Prospect Park Alliance. In keeping with all ART FOR CHANGE releases, artists will receive 50% of the net proceeds from each print sale.
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Park Bench depicts a singular female character, seated within a lush landscape defined by a curved walkway that cuts through full, mature trees. Appearing in a one-shouldered dress that billows around her, the woman engages the viewer with a serene look, while clutching an orange flower against the light blue sash around her waist. The figure’s luminous hair drapes around her shoulder and neck, amplifying the youthful romanticism that was intended by the artist. Although Beeman’s colors are subdued in tone, they come together to convey a harmonious state of tranquility. For this edition, the artist will hand-embellish ten prints by using colored pencils to emphasize the delineations of the figure, and to rework the color and texture in the grass and trees. Additionally, she will add earrings with a gold pen.
On her participation in the exhibition, Beeman notes: “Prospect Park has been very special to me since I moved to Brooklyn in 2005. After so many years of living here and visiting the park, I am still in awe at the beauty of it, and how fortunate we are to have access to such a serene place in the middle of the city. I am excited to participate in this initiative because I feel a great sense of gratitude to Prospect Park Alliance for everything they do to maintain the park, and as an example to other cities that are in the process of revitalizing their own parks and public spaces.”
Kelly Beeman pictured in her studio. Image courtesy of Bryan Derballa.
Recently, Kelly Beeman sat down for an interview with Air Mail journalist Elena Clavarino before the artist’s show “Summer,” which was her first solo show at Perrotin, New York. Beeman "grew up in an artistic household, but never thought it would turn into a career." Speaking about the early influences on her process, in middle school, the artist gravitated towards studying Picasso’s Blue Period paintings and then focused on modernist works. Beeman notes that both “informed the paintings that I was making that were quite Expressionist.” Now, Beeman’s work is mostly figurative with clone-like figures of women partaking in leisurely activities.
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