About Steve Beck
Electronic “polymediast” Stephen Beck has been sculpting video and multimedia works with electrons since the pre-digital era in 1967. Beck’s video works have been broadcast on PBS-TV and on international television networks, and are in collections of major art museums worldwide.
His video performances, compositions, and sculptures have been acquired by both private collectors as well as major art museums worldwide. Commissions for Beck’s prolific range of artistic creations have led to presentations at renowned art events, including ARTEC in Nagoya, Japan, Documenta, Kassel, German, 10e Biennale de Paris, the Kwang Ju Biennale in Korea, and Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, as well as in exhibits ranging from the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Zagreb, Croatia, to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, The Getty Center “California Video: A History” the Smithsonian Hirshhorn “Visual Music”, MCASD, and others.
In 2016 The Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired two of Beck’s classic video film fusion works, UNION and CYCLES, for its permanent collection of The Moving Image. (CYCLES was a collaboration between Jordan Belson and Beck.)
Beck’s work has been recognized with artist’s grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Film Institute. The artist was invited to present his work at the series, “Conversations with Contemporary Artists,” at the Museum of Modern Art New York. Earlier in his career, from 1970 to 1974, Beck was an electronic video artist in residence at the Public Television System’s National Center for Experiments in Television at KQED-TV in San Francisco.
Beck’s films and videos have been honored with awards including the Prix Italia, the CINE Gold Eagle, commissions from HIH Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, Japan, and HRH Crown Prince Toupoutoa, Kingdom of Tonga, The Rockefeller Foundation, The American Film Institute (AFI), and The National Endowment for the Arts, among others.
The artist holds degrees in electronic engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied electronic music and composition with composer John Cage at the University of Illinois, Urbana. He was a founding member of the Chicago chapter of EAT (Experiments in Art and Technology) in 1968.
Mr. Beck served on the faculty of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, from 2005-2013 in various appointed positions; Visiting Fellow (a Jolly Good One!) in EECS, Appointed Lecturer and Executive in Residence, Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, CITRIS Technology Artist in Residence, Guest Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), mentor to students in engineering and other fields of study. His Art and Technology classes (IEOR 190F) served hundreds of students the years he was teaching them.
Selected Exhibitions and Activities
2025
Musée d'arts de Nantes Nantes, France
Video Weavings in
Electric Op Exhibition
April 3 - August 20, 2025
2024-2025
Tate Modern, London
Electric Dreams Exhibition
November 28, 2024 - June 1, 2025
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/electric-dreams
2024-2025
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York
September 27, 2024 - January 25, 2025
2024
SL8 Gallery, Gainesville, Florida
Projections: An Evening of Steve Beck Videons
September 27, 2024
2023-2024
80WSE Gallery at NYU, New York, New York
Union and Anima in
November 5, 2023 - February 5, 2024
2018
The Exploratorium, San Francisco
An evening with Steve Beck videos and films
October 15, 2018
2016
Cine Family / Lost and Found Film Club
Los Angeles In Person Appearance and Showings October 5
Dedicated to Steve Beck's mother Lorraine Mandarino Beck, who will be celebrating her 89th birthday in Chicago-land on the day of the show.
2015
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Interview by John Hanhardt, Curator Emeritus
published from 2014 visit to Casa Bella Studios
Berkeley, California
2012
"In The Beginning was the Electron"
California Video
March 15 - June 8, 2008
The Getty Center, Los Angeles, California
Soundwaves with Video Weavings
September 23, 2007 - May 30, 2008
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego at La Jolla
2011
Leonardo Conference Istanbul
2010
“Radical Light” Berkeley Art Museum
University of California, Berkeley
2008
November
The Tate Modern London
Colour Fields with Video Weavings
Visual Music: 1905-2005
with "Illuminated Music 2" by Stephen Beck
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
February 13 - May 22, 2005 ( press release )
Smithsonian Institution Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
June 23 - September 11, 2005 ( press release )
2004-2005
Sons & Lumiéres
Center Georges Pompidou, Paris
with "Illuminated Music 2" by Stephen Beck
Selected Exhibitions 1967 – 2007
“History of Video Art in California” The Getty Center, LA, 2008
“Soundwaves” Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla 2007
“Occularis” Brooklyn, New York, 2006
“Visual Music” Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum, 2005
“Visual Music” MOCA Los Angeles, 2005
“Son e Lumiere” Pompidou Center, Paris, 2004
“Conversations with Contemporary Artists” MOMA, New York, 2002
“American Century” The Whitney Museum of American Art, 2000
“Kwang-Ju Biennale” Kwang-Ju, Korea, 1995
“Ars Electronica” Pioneers of Electronic Art, Linz, Austria, 1992
“ARTEC 91” Art and Technology, Nagoya, Japan, 1991
“National Video Art Festival” Washington, DC 1984
“Open Circuits” Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1974
“The Electric Concert” Dallas, Texas, 1972
“Videola” Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 1972
“Video Synthesis” Berkeley Art Museum, 1971
“!” A Rock Opera. Univ. of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1970
“Prextephia” Video Synthesis Performance, U of I, 1969
“Sal-Mar” Music and Video Synthesis, Art Institute of Chicago, 1969
Selected International TV Broadcasts
NHK, Tokyo, Japan, MONDO 2000 and Cyberspace, 1991
PBS-TV “Video Visionaries” WNET New York, 1976
Video Weavings, Anima, Union
PBS-TV “Videospace Electronic Notebooks” KQED, 1974
Conception, Methods, Cycles
“SCAN” 1972, KQED-TV, San Francisco “Illuminated Music 1” with live interview of Beck by journalist Joe Russin. This live, on the air broadcast, includes a live performance by Stephen Beck, playing his Beck Direct Video Synthesizer to the music “Like It Is” by Yusef Lateef. The transmission was directly connected to Beck’s video synthesizer, with 50,000 watts of power transmitted on Channel 9, 187.25 Mhz, fully NTSC FCC broadcast technical standards compliant. This is the only known time that a video artist performed a video synthesizer directly to broadcast on live TV.
PBS-TV “American Dreams” KQED-TV, 1971,
(other broadcasts between 1976 – 2007 to be filled in – there were many in Germany, France, Italy, Finland, Japan, Venezuela, Canada…
Selected Gallery Exhibitions
“Video Weavings” Quint Contemporary Gallery, La Jolla, California May 2005
“Our Darling” (Neon Tombstone) Ward Nasse Gallery, New York, 1971
(partial listing – incomplete as of this build.)