Karl Beveridge

Karl Beveridge D.F.A. (born November 7, 1945) is a Canadian artist. His practice responds to critical contemporary cultural, social, and political issues through the use of collaboration and dialogue.

In their career, which spans over thirty years, Condé and Beveridge have had over fifty solo exhibitions at major museums and art spaces across four continents, including: the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK; Museum Folkswang in Germany; the George Meany Centre in Washington; Dazibao Gallery in Montréal; Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires; the Art Gallery of Edmonton; and the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney.

Background In 1969, Condé and Beveridge, then working as independent conceptual artists, left Toronto for the burgeoning conceptual art world in New York City, where they found their overtly politicized voice. In 1975, they picketed at the Museum of Modern Art, protesting its lack of inclusion of women artists. Their work expresses the fundamental principal that art is a social transaction that becomes a participatory, collaborative process, communicating and articulating commonalities and differences shared by all.

Exhibitions

Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge: Working Culture – Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON, 2009. Open Conversations: The Art Practice of Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge – Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, BC, 2012. Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge: Scene Otherwise – Khyber Centre for the Arts/Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, 2015. I stood before the source – Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga, ON, 2016. Winds of Change: Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge – Durham Art Gallery, Durham, ON, 2018.

Publications

Women and the Fight to Unionize (1986) – Focusing on working women and how women, more than men, have been forced to confront the interconnection of work and life after work. Although originally conceived as true documentary, the project used fictionalized accounts and actors after fears of employer reprisals arose. Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge: Political Landscapes (1998) - Investigates the strategies employed in the artists’ tableau photographs, which centre around the collapse of the cod fishery, strikes by union workers and activism by students, teachers, etc.

Film/video

Portrait of Resistance: The Art and Activism of Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge (2011) - Intimately captures the artistic duo as they create their provocative and powerfully political staged photographs

Awards 2010: Honorary Doctorate, Ontario College of Art and Design/OCAD University, Toronto, ON 2015: Honorary Doctorate, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design/NSCAD University, Halifax, NS 2022 (with Carole Condé) Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts

Collections

Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, ON Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB

Archives There is a Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge fonds at Library and Archives Canada. The archival reference number is R9079. The fonds covers the date range 1980 to 1984. It consists of 40 audio cassettes, 71 photographs and 4.6 centimeters of textual records.