Beverly Semmes

Beverly Semmes (born 1958) is an American artist based in New York City who works in sculpture, textile, video, photography, performance, and large-scale installation.

Education and career Semmes studied at the Boston Museum School, Tufts University, and at the Yale University School of Art. Semmes is known for her large-scale sculpture and installations, which often explore the relationship between craft and fine art while simultaneously dealing with issues related to feminism, gender roles and womanhood. She explores this in many different ways, notably with her textile work, as textiles are traditionally associated with women and women's work. Her oversized dresses are dysfunctional in scale and composition, emphasizing the absence of the body. Her ceramic works, often juxtaposed with her fabric installations, tend to be roughly shaped vessels in bright fluorescent shades, while her crystal works defy our expectations of the medium and serve as a metaphor for the female body. The censoring of the images serves as an effort to protect the subject and the viewer from the imagery of porn, highlighting American society's conflicted relationship to pornography and sexual censorship.

Witch Hunt (2021) In October 10, 2021, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California, organized an exhibition titled Witch Hunt, featuring sixteen women artists from thirteen countries. Semmes' work Helmet (2018) was featured alongside many other works that strive to encourage dialogue about contemporary feminist issues.

Marigold (2022) Semmes was one of eleven women artists commissioned by fashion designer Sarah Burton, the creative director of fashion brand Alexander McQueen, to create an artwork that would represent both their artistic style and reference motifs from the brand's latest fashion line. Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, and the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus.

Her work is included in the collections of the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C (part of the Smithsonian Institution), Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York. Semmes is represented by Susan Inglett Gallery in New York City.