Art & Culture

Next Big Thing: Kelly Beeman

The artist’s previous life as a fashion illustrator informs her nonchalantly elegant characters and their mise-en-scènes

By Galerie editors

November 30, 2022

Artist standing in a studio with large colorful paintings, surrounded by art supplies on the floor. — Kelly Beeman in her Brooklyn studio with recent works. Photo: BRYAN DERBALLA

It’s no surprise the Amedeo Modigliani–esque women in Kelly Beeman’s paintings radiate poised complexity or that the artist’s clean, fluid lines stand out in a crowd. Beeman’s previous life as a fashion illustrator informs her nonchalantly elegant characters and their mise-en-scènes; she likens her process to costume design, inspired by vintage styles and runway collections.

Illustration of five women in a room with various expressions, some seated at a table, softly lit ambiance. — Kelly Beeman, In the Living Room, (2020). Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Fashion focus: “In my art, fashion has become a way that I tell stories and give clues about the characters, often alluding to things happening beyond what’s depicted in the composition.”

Two women in a surreal landscape with houses, surrounded by birds, in a stylized artistic illustration. — Kelly Beeman, Vultures, (2020). Photo: Courtesy of the artist

“Kelly’s practice engages desire, freedom, and femininity in her characteristic, subdued, figurative style. Her subjects’ clothing and environments imbue a sense of wonder, mystique, and fantasy into everyday situations.”

Jeanne Masel

Power pose: “I try to pose and distort the figures in my paintings in a way that seems beautiful and natural upon first inspection and then becomes strange and impossible the more you look at them. During the pandemic, they were usually running somewhere. I felt that life was so stagnant and monotonous, and so my figures were trying to escape that.”