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Meet June featured artist: Cicek Beeby
Cicek Beeby is an archaeologist, art historian, and a multimedia visual artist. Her academic work looks at the art of bodies and emotions, funerary practices, myth and storytelling, and gender and sexuality. She earned her B.A. in art history and archaeology, and her Ph.D. in Classics and archaeology. Since then, she has held fellowships and taught at various institutions, including the Getty Research Institute and New York University. She is currently based at Brown University.
Her art focuses on similar themes as her academic interests, with the addition of the exploration of her Turkish-born American identity and her diasporic journey across lands and cultures. She is a self-taught artist and often identifies as part of the modern iteration of the “outsider” art movement as she works at the margins of an industry with strong gatekeeping mechanisms. Her current obsession in her creative practice is incorporating needlework into her paintings—this is both an homage to her cultural heritage and to generations of women in her family who worked with threads and fabrics all their lives, even though their work was never considered art. She draws inspiration for her embroidery from Turkish needlework as well as traditional Turkish ceramics and manuscript illustration.
Although she works mostly in 2D media, she is currently experimenting with ceramics and developing ways to marry embroidery and clay. This process is compelling her to think through 20 years of archaeological experience with ancient pottery!
She lives in Providence, RI, and exhibits her work across New England. For inquiries about her work or cultural programming (including lectures, curatorial projects, and juror work), please contact her at cicekbeeby@gmail.com.
See more of her work on her website www.cicekbeeby.com
or on Instagram @highlowarts.
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