Rick Beck

Glassworker Rick Beck’s modern cast & carved figurative glass sculptures are inspired by industrial and architectural works as well as organic shapes created from the human form. Canadian born, he studied and taught at Pilchuck & Penland. His sculpture is widely represented in museums and private collections across the US and internationally.

Rick Beck shares a studio with Valerie Thomas Beck in Hakalau, HI. He began working glass at Hastings College in Nebraska in 1978 and received his MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1989. He had residencies at both the Appalachian Center for Crafts 1989 to 1991, and Penland School of Crafts 1991 to 1994. In 1994, Rick was awarded a visual arts fellowship by the North Carolina Arts Council, followed by a National Endowment for the Arts regional visual arts fellowship from the Southern Arts Federation in 1995. He is known for his large-scale cast glass sculpture depicting industrial, everyday objects and the human figure.

His recent series of large-scale abstracted, figurative work are often constructed of several parts. The assembled components express the weighty, monumental aspects of the human form while at the same time they often render the body in very lively poses.

Beck's cast pieces are one of a kind. He begins by making the figure or shape out of clay. Next step is investing it in plaster, then digging out the clay. After editing that by carving and changing the mold, it is put into the annealer. Chunks of glass are put into the mold and heated to 1600 degrees then held there for annealing. The time it takes to come down to room temperature depends on the size of the piece, which can be anywhere from a week to two months. Once the mold is removed from the annealer, the plaster or silica mold is completely broken away and the piece is carved using diamond tools.

Speaking of his inspiration for his figurative work Beck says, "My wife, Valerie, got me a book by Yve-Alain Bois about the competitive relationship between Picasso and Matisse. Their artistic dialogue about the figure has fired my imagination, especially the way they shared and borrowed images and ideas from one another, as well as from history and literature. Between this book, and some recent visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, I've been inspired by the use of shape, form, and mass to create something more universal than the literal subject."

"My work in glass is a synthesis of human and mechanical form, with an emphasis on formal aspects. I am interested in playing the volumes of mass against the rhythm of the lines. I enjoy the interplay of the visual (visceral) versus the verbal (descriptive/technical). The work should challenge the eye and the mind."