Stacey Beach is a Californian artist whose works reference, draw from and celebrate the marginalized traditions of textile, decorative and folk arts and their inextricable association with the maternal, the domestic and the feminine.

 

Her quilted textile still lives depict flowers, vessels, female busts, sculptures, artwork and various personal items from her collections and memory as well as from art history. Flowers are drawn not from life but adapted from patterns passed down to embroiderers and quilters over generations. Sculptural references range from ancient Mycenaean pottery to Peruvian folk art pottery to chalk art carnival prizes from the American 1900s. Ancient Greece informs the shape of vessels while images of surfers, birds, cats or flowers are personal biographical adornment. Images of women dominate the still life, whether it be in personal photograph, sculpture, vase, or artworks from celebrated artists like Matisse, Joan Brown, or Alice Neel. Art as ornament, the female as ornament. Female as artist, as maker, as subject. 

​

Beach holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and her work has been exhibited at Uprise Art, Marin MoCA, Marrow Gallery, Kala Institute, California College of the Arts, and Kent State, among others. A series of prints based on her ink drawings are currently available through Design within Reach x Uprise NY collaboration. She has been selected for residency at Kala Institute and has been shortlisted for the Hopper Prize twice.