John Beattie

Overview

Beattie’s work explores ideas and perceptions relating to The Artist, The Studio and The Audience. Through process based and context specific methodologies, his work attempts to create discourse between academic classical traditions and contemporary practice. Employing the use of drawing, video, photography and performance, Beattie explores how the viewer engages with or unravels the creative process through methods of documentation, production and representation. “If The Artist carries through his idea and makes it into visible form, then all the steps in the process are of importance. The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product. All intervening steps, scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed works, models, studies, thoughts, conversations, are of interest. Those that show the thought process of the artist are sometimes more interesting than the final product.” – Sol Le Witt. Beattie received his MA from The Univsersity of Ulster, Belfast in 2005. Residencies include Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, 2010; The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 2010; Fire Station Artists’ Studio, Dublin, 2006-2009, and Draíocht Arts Centre, Dublin, 2005. Recent selected exhibitions include The Artist Studio Series, The Goethe Institut, Return Gallery, Dublin, 2010; Fragile, Le Carre Bonnat, Musée Bonnat, France, 2009; Once Removed, Wexford Arts Centre, 2008 and Open Archive, ARGOS Centre for Art & Media, Brussels.