'Sound is a sculptural presence which is entirely contingent on form, time, geometry and space. If you look at objects from an acoustic perspective, they can start to reveal things that we wouldn’t have realised had we been observing them purely visually.’ Oliver Beer

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Oliver Beer is a visual artist and composer whose sculptures, paintings, installations, videos and immersive live performances reveal the hidden properties and innate musicality of objects, bodies and architectural spaces. Rooted in his background in both musical composition and visual art, Beer’s work draws on social and familial relationships to explore universal themes such as the transmission of musical heritage or the personal and cultural significance we assign to the objects we possess. For his Resonance Project (2007–), Beer composes vocal performances that activate the natural harmonics of built structures, creating a disarmingly visceral connection between the audience and the surrounding space. His Resonance Paintings translate musical harmony into visual form by using sound to vibrate scattered pigment over his canvases, capturing the ‘shapes of sound’ in a painting method that uniquely merges auditory and visual expression.

 

Beer’s work has been exhibited in major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and MoMA PS1 in New York; London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE; the Centre Pompidou, Opéra Garnier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Palais de Tokyo, Musée d’Art Moderne, and Château de Versailles in Paris; the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lyon; Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Australia; Ikon Gallery in Birmingham; WIELS in Brussels; the West Bund Museum and The Long Museum in Shanghai; as well as the Sydney, Istanbul, Lyon, and Venice biennales. Beer was part of the British Art Show 9 and has undertaken residencies at Villa Albertine, Palais de Tokyo, Watermill Centre, Sydney Opera House, and Foundation Hermès.

 

Oliver studied musical composition at the Academy of Contemporary Music in London, Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, and film theory at the Sorbonne in Paris.

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 

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2025 

MUSEE D'ART MODERNE DE PARIS, Paris, France, Reanimation Paintings: A Thousand Voices / Part 2 (10 April - 13 July 2025)

CENTRE POMPIDOU, Paris, France, Exposition de la donation de la Fondation Antoine de Galbert – Collection Jean Chatelus (26 Mar - 30 Jun 2025)

THADDAEUS ROPAC GALLERY, Paris, France, Resonance Paintings: The Cave (1 Mar - 19 Apr 2025)

 

2024

THE LONG MUSEUM, Shanghai, China, 50-90 - final exhibition in the 10th-anniversary series (7 Nov 2024 - 30 Mar 2025)

BYARTMATTERS, Hangzhou, China, Prosodic grains (31 Oct 2024 - 5 April 2025)

MUSEE D'ART MODERNE DE PARIS, Paris, France, Reanimation Paintings: A Thousand Voices / Part 1 (4 Oct 2024 - 12 Jan 2025)

17E BIENNALE DE LYON / LES GRANDES LOCOS, Lyon, France, Les voix des fleuves (18 Sept 2024 - 5 Jan 2025)

OPERA DE RENNES / FRAC BRETAGNE, Rennes, France, Les Fantômes de l’Opéra #3 (21 august - 1 Sept 2024)

NORMANDIE IMPRESSIONNISTE / Le Hangar 107, Rouen, France, Resonance Paintings - Nymphéas (23 May - 20 July)

20/21 ESPACIO DE ARTE, Tijarafe, La Palma, Spain, History, A microcosmic perspective (4 May - 7 Dec)  

CENTRE POMPIDOU x WEST BUND MUSEUM, Shanghai, China, I Never Dream Otherwise than Awake Journeys in Sound (26 April - 17 September)

ALMINE RECH - TRIBECA, New York, USA, Resonance Paintings - Cat Orchestra 

ANNA SCHWARTZ GALLERY, Melbourne, Australia, In House

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2023

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ART BASEL MIAMI, Miami, USA, ​Meridians

FRAC BRETAGNE, France, L’autre musée, the treasures of a major contemporary art collection

CINEMA SPLENDID, Geneva, Switzerland, Splendid, An Art Exhibition, curated by Olivier Varenne

BALLY FOUNDATION, Lugano, Switzerland, Un Lac Inconnu

ALMINE RECH, Shanghai, China, Recompositions: Night Revels

LONDON MITHRAEUM BLOOMBERG SPACE, London UK, Albion Waves

THADDAEUS ROPAC SALZBURG, Austria, Oliver Beer: Resonance Paintings - Blue Notes

ASE FOUNDATION, China, By Virtue of Situated Compromise

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2022

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THADDAEUS ROPAC SEOUL, Oliver Beer: Resonance Paintings - Two Notes

PARASOL UNIT, Venice Biennial, Venice, Uncombed, Unforeseen, Unconstrained

HAYWARD GALLERY TOURING, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Plymouth, Aberdeen, Cardiff, British Art Show 9

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2021

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OPÉRA GARNIER, Paris, Composition for Mouths (Songs My Mother Taught Me)

VENET FOUNDATION, France, Murs du Son (Infinite Variations on a Theme)

THE CLUB, Tokyo, Japan, Ghost Notes (Part I)

 

2020

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GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, London, Oma

RIGA INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART (RIBOCA2), Riga, Latvia

VOORLINDEN MUSEUM, Wassenaar, Netherlands, Rendez-vous

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2019

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MET BREUER, New York, Oliver Beer: Vessel Orchestra

JAHILI FORT, QASR AL HOSN, Abu Dhabi, A Thousand Faces, in collaboration with the Louvre Abu Dhabi

PALAIS DE LA DÉCOUVERTE, FIAC 2019, Stray Voices

POLA MUSEUM OF ART, Japan, Syncopation: Contemporary encounters with the Modern Masters

BIENNIAL OF QUEBEC CITY, Galerie des Arts Visuels, Reanimation (Baloo Stripped Bare)

GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, Paris Marais, Household Gods

UNIVERSITY NEW SOUTH WALES GALLERIES, Sydney Australia, Impossible Composition

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2018

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ANNA SCHWARTZ GALLERY, Melbourne, Australia, Impossible Composition curated by Anaïs Lellouche

BIENNALE OF SYDNEY, Sydney Opera House & Art Gallery of New South Wales

 

2017

 

PALACE OF VERSAILLES, France, Voyage d'hiver

THADDAEUS ROPAC GALLERY, London, New Performance and Sculpture

IKON GALLERY, Birmingham, Oliver Beer

MAC VAL, France, Sans réserve

SOCLE DU MONDE BIENNALE 2017, Denmark, Good Fences Make Good Neighbours: Højskolevej 11

 

2016

 

POMPIDOU CENTRE, Paris, Polyphonies

NUIT BLANCHE, Paris, Live Stream

VG PRIZE EXHIBITION, London

AOYAMA/MEGURO, Tokyo, Japan, Imprisoned, Jailbreak, Imprisoned, Jailbreak

FRAENKEL LAB, San Francisco, Reanimation (Snow White)

 

2015

 

AOYAMA MEGURO, Daiwa Art Prize 2015, Tokyo, Life, Death and Tennis

ASAKUSA HOUSE, Daiwa Art Prize 2015, Tokyo, Deconstructing Sound

WATERMILL CENTER, New York, Making Tristan, Watermill Center artist in residence

KILIC ALI PASA HAMAM, Istanbul, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac / Istanbul Biennale, Call to Sound

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2014

 

GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC, Diabolus in Musica

MUSEE D'ART CONTEMPORAIN MAC Lyon, Rabbit Hole

CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU, Paris, Oliver Beer – Prospectif Cinéma

MOMA PS1 / Curated by Palais de Tokyo, New York, The Resonance Project

LE FORUM, HERMES, Tokyo, Condensation

MEESSEN DE CLERCQ, Brussels, Saint Jérôme

VILLA ARSON, Nice, Oliver Beer / Shingo Yoshida

 

2013

 

GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC PANTIN, Composition for Hearing an Architectural Space

BIENNALE DE LYON / PALAIS DE TOKYO, Lyon, The Present is Unfinished

PALAIS DE TOKYO, Paris, Nouvelles Vagues

IKON GALLERY, Birmingham, Outside-In, Permanent installation

WIELS CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART / EXPERIENZ

THALIE ART PROJECT - ART BRUSSELS, The Resonance Project

POMPIDOU CENTRE, Paris, The Resonance Project: Deep and Meaningful

PALAIS DE TOKYO, Paris, KLANG

 

2012

 

SAATCHI GALLERY, 100 Curators

2012 BIENNALE DE BELLEVILLE, Paris

2012 WHITSTABLE BIENNALE, Kent

NUIT BLANCHE 2012, Paris

PALAIS DE TOKYO, Paris, (Entre)Ouverture

GALERIE DE ROUSSAN, Paris, La Part de l’Ombre

MENAGERIE DE VERRE, Paris

FRAC CORSICA, Corsica

 

2011

 

IKON GALLERY, Birmingham, Autumn Almanac 2011

SAATCHI GALLERY, The Big Chill 2011

OLD VIC TUNNELS, London, Mindful

 

2010

 

IKON GALLERY, Birmingham

SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM, London

SELFRIDGES, London, Anticipation

MURMURART, London

RUSKIN SHORTS, Oxford

20 HOXTON SQUARE, London, Concrete and Glass

DNA GALLERY, Berlin, Reflections

LONDON ART FAIR, Photo50

 

2009

 

SAATCHI GALLERY, A Foundation, London New Sensations

RESONANCE FM, London UK / Online

RUSKIN SCHOOL OF DRAWING AND FINE ART, University of Oxford, Degree Show

UK RUSKIN SHORTS, Oxford, Phoenix Picturehouse

 

2008

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20 EVENTI, Rome

MODERN ART OXFORD, Oxford, Box Ladder

BEACONSFIELD GALLERY, London, Performance with Matmos

VIVAROSI GALLERY, Budapest

 

 

PRIZES / RESIDENCIES

 

2024 Villa Albertine, artist in residence, New York, USA 

2021 Mondes Nouveaux, National Culture Prize (awarded by the president of France), France

2017 Artist in residence Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia

2015 Daiwa Foundation, Art Prize (Winner), Japan

2015 Watermill Center, artist in residence, New York, USA

2013 Villa Arson, artist in residence, France

2012 Fondation Hermès, artist in residence, France

2011 Palais de Tokyo, artist in residence, France

2010 Arts Council, award and commission, UK

2009 Saatchi Gallery, News Sensations (winner), UK

2007 Oxford University, Scholarship, UK

 

 

PUBLICATIONS (select)



2022 Oliver Beer - Resonance Paintings, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Essay by Kyougran Kim, conversation with Bengi Ünsal

2017 Oliver Beer - Composition for London, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, text by Ben Eastham, Martin Germann, Robert Wilson

2017 Oliver Beer, Ikon Gallery, text by Mami Kataoka, Jonathan Watkins

2014 Oliver Beer, MAC Lyon and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, text by Isabelle Bertolotti, Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, Matthieu Lelièvre, Thierry Raspail, Jonathan Watkins

2013 Oliver Beer, cahier de résidence. Fondation Hermès, text by Clément Dirier, Editions Actes Sud

2013 Voyage en territoires partagés, dir. Charlotte Moth, including a text by Oliver Beer, Editions Cercle d'Art

 

 

COLLECTIONS

 

Australia
MONA – Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania

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China
Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China
Qiong Joan Zhang, ASE Foundation
Long Museum, Shanghai

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France

Musée national d’arts moderne du Centre Pompidou, Paris

Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP), Paris
FRAC Bretagne, Rennes
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

Le Plateau, FRAC Île-de-France, Paris
Les Abattoirs, Musée – FRAC Occitanie Toulouse, Toulouse

Musée d'art contemporain - MAC, Lyon
Collection du MAC Val, France
Kadist Collection Paris, France
Lab’Bel Collection, Suresnes
Agnès B. Collection, Paris

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Japan
National Museum of Art, Osaka

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Monaco
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco

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Netherlands
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar

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Norway

Kistefos Museum (Christen Sveaas Art Collection), Jevnaker

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United Arab Emirates
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi

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UK
GOSH Arts - Arts programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Child, London
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Arts Council Collection

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USA
Kramlich Collection, San Francisco, CA

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