Michael Beatty

Since the 1990s sculptor Michael Beatty has explored the intersection of geometry and organic form. Informed by the basic patterns of the five Platonic solids (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron) and line drawing, the artist creates dichotomies that embrace hard and soft, angled and curved, wood and steel. As the title Restless Geometry (2000) attests, his sculptures often posses rigid lines that give way to meandering loops. His later work has focused on wall hangings such as Samedifference (2011), an exquisite corpse of black welded steel and white painted laminated wood whose respective shadows create the illusion of pixelation and exaggerated arcs. Cartography being another realm that combines math and nature, Beatty has described his pieces as maps and declares that they give "physical reality to emotional topography."

Beatty’s works have been shown in exhibitions at Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA, Fuller Museum of Art in Brockton, MA, and Fitchburg’s Art Museum in MA among others. He has created commissions and public projects for DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA and Boston Millennium Commission.