b. 1943, West Bay, Manitoulin Island, Ontario
First Nations Affiliation: Ojibwa

Beam graduated with a B.F.A. from the University of Victoria in 1974, and continued his studies in an M.F.A. programme at the University of Alberta, where he forged a sophisticated practice and an international career in the vanguard of Post-modernism with multimedia paintings, prints, and constructions. His work is generally characterized by the juxtaposition of autobiographical, commercial, photographic, and art historical references, evoking the dissonances between Euroamerican and Native cultures. In New Mexico in 1980, Beam mastered Anasazi pottery techniques and a decade later applied adobe rammed earth architecture to the construction of ecologically-sound buildings on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. On commission, Beam constructed a large-scale work, Exorcism, for the Thunder Bay Art Gallery and was artist in residence at Artspace in Peterborough, Ontario, in 1988. Two years earlier, his painting The North American Ice-berg became the first  Native artwork purchased by the National Gallery of Canada (in Ottawa, Ontario) since 1927.

R E C E N T   E X H I B I T I O N S

S E L E C T E D   C O L L E C T I O N S

Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Québec
The City of Buffalo, New York
The City of Revelstoke, British Columbia
The City of Sudbury, Ontario
Gallery 480, Elora, Ontario
Government of Ontario Art Collection, Sudbury, Ontario
Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Laurentian University, Museum and Arts Centre, Sudbury, Ontario
McMichael Canadian Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
New College, University of Toronto, Ontario
Ojibwa Cultural Foundation, West Bay, Ontario
Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Ontario
Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario
Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford, Ontario

S E L E C T E D   B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Kelley, Caffyn. "Broken silence, visible wounds: Canadian artists expose social space with contradictions intact." High Performance 18, nos. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 1995): 48-53.

Canadian Museum of Civilization, ed. In the Shadow of the Sun: Perspectives on Contemporary Native Art. Hull, Québec: The Museum, 1993.

Cinader, Bernhard. "Carl Beam: 20th-century Woodland artist." Art Post 8, no. 2 (Winter 1990/1991): 20-23.

"The Columbus suite." Globe & Mail Metro Edition, 5 February 1993, p. C2. [Review: Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto]

Fischer, Barbara. Re-enactment: Between Self and Other. Toronto, Ontario: The  Power Plant, 1990.

Grande, John K. "Carl Beam: Dissolving time." Canadian Forum 72, no. 820 (June 1993): 19-23.

Kritzwiser, Kay. "Viewpoint; 29 x 9." Arts Magazine (February / March 1981): 10-15.

"Living in mother earth." Canadian Art 10, no. 3 (1993): 90. [Review: London Regional Art & Historical Museums. London]

"Look Ma, no mortgage." Toronto Star, 23 July 1992, p. G4. [Review: Gottlieb Gallery]

McMaster, Gerald, and Lee-Ann Martin, eds. INDIGENA: Contemporary Native Perspectives. Vancouver, British Columbia: Douglas & McIntyre, 1992./ INDIGENA.: Perspectives autochtones contemporaines. Hull, Québec: Musée canadien des civilisations, 1992.

Moodie, Jim. "Adobe house: How artists Ann and Carl Beam built a beautiful adobe country home in northern Ontario." Harrowsmith Country Life 21, no. 131 (December 1996): 32-41.

"Paintings from the Columbus Boat." Border Crossings 12, no. 3 (Summer 1993): 48. [Review. Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon]

Rhodes, Richard. Carl Beam, the Columbus Boat. Toronto, Ontario: The Power Plant, 1992.

Southcott, Mary E. The Sound of Drum: The Sacred Art of the Anishnabec. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1984.

Tétrault, Pierre-Léon, Dana Alan Williams, Guy Sioui Durand, Alfred Young Man, et al. New Territories: 350/500 Years After: An Exhibition of Contemporary Aboriginal Art of Canada. Prefaces by Robert Houle, Tom Hill. Montréal, Québec: Ateliers Vision planétaire, 1992.

Trevelyn, Amelia. Seeing a New World: The Works of Carl Beam and Frederic Remington. Gettysburg, Philadelphia: Gettysburg College of Art, 1993.