The Art Of Brooklyn: Meet Jarrod Beck

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In designing 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, we wanted to make the hotel connected to the community, surroundings, and history in organic and sustainable ways. So, we commissioned works from local artists, asking them to keep in mind all of these factors in their pieces, in order to communicate these connections in visual and thought-provoking ways. In this series, go behind the scenes with the artists and their creations.

Brooklyn artist Jarrod Beck and 1 Hotels share a fascination: the interaction between humans and nature. In his nearly 15 years as a sculptor, installation artist, print maker, and, more recently, performance artist, Beck has made that relationship central to his work, creating pieces for parks around the country and winning awards and residencies from organizations dedicated the environment and public spaces.

His installation at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, called “All OVEREACHOTHER,” fills the wall behind the reception, making its version of nature an integral part of the hotel’s fabric.

With its delicately draped rubber strips, Beck’s piece challenges our conceptions of and relationship to the natural world around us. These rubber strips used to be part of larger sheets that formed the roof of a big-box retail store in Utica, in upstate New York, that was destroyed by a tornado in the summer of 2014. By using the remains of that very roof for his artwork, Beck prompts the viewer to consider how easily the chaos of nature can destroy man-made architecture. While that might sound hopeless, Beck’s creation of beauty out of destruction argues otherwise: Instead, by placing the piece inside, he argues for accepting nature, bringing it into our lives, and working with it for mutual benefit.

To learn more about Brooklyn artist Jarrod Beck, visit his website: jarrodcharlesbeck.com.

To read our first post in The Art of Brooklyn series, featuring Rachel Mica Weiss, see here. 

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