Robert Bean – Biography 2019

Robert Bean is an artist, writer and curator living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is a Professor at NSCAD University. Bean has edited books and published articles on the subject of photography, contemporary art and cultural history. He has been an active contributor to the Cineflux Research Group at NSCAD University and the Narratives in Space and Time art and mobility project. Bean is a recipient of grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canada Council for the Arts. Robert Bean was the Artist in Residence at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, Ottawa, in 2010.
Utilizing public archives and collections, Bean considers the temporal uncertainty that photographs and digital media evoke in relation to experience, technology and language. Specific to this project is the production of artwork and publications influenced by the culture of ubiquitous networks, mobile computing and obsolescence.
In 2011, the CONTACT Photography Festival and the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology commissioned Bean to complete a site-specific multimedia installation titled “Illuminated Manuscripts” at the McLuhan Coach House, University of Toronto. This project was also exhibited at Centre culturel canadien, Paris, France. In 2014, Robert Bean curated the exhibition “Stan Douglas Photographs” in conjunction with the Scoitabank Photography Award. Installed at the Ryerson Image Centre during the CONTACT Photography Festival, the exhibition was accompanied by a monograph of photographs by Stan Douglas published by the Steidl Press.
In 2012, Bean presented the solo exhibition “273 (brushing information against information)” in conjunction with the centenary of John Cage. In 2013 he completed a collaborative installation with Ilan Sandler titled “Obsolescence and Inscription” at Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, Halifax. In November 2014, Bean presented a solo exhibition at ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie) in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Bean’s solo exhibition “Thing Sites” was exhibited by Circuit Gallery @ Prefix ICA as a featured exhibition with the CONTACT Photography Festival in April 2016.
Robert Bean is a founding member of Narratives in Space + Time Society. From 2014 – 17, NiS+TS conducted numerous public walking and mobility projects titled “Walking the Debris Field: Public Geographies of the Halifax Explosion”. In addition to the public art and walking projects, NiS+TS completed gallery installations at Dalhousie Art Gallery, the Chase Gallery, Nova Scotia Archives and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax. NiS+TS produced a mobile walking App titled “Drifts” for the Centenary of the Halifax Explosion, 2017. The iOS app is available on-line for free at the App Store.
Robert Bean and Barbara Lounder were commissioned in 2017 to produce a site-specific collaborative artwork titled “Being-in-the-Breathable” for Festival CONTEXTS 2017: International Sokolwsko Festival of Ephemeral Art, Sokolwsko, Poland.
Robert Bean's work is in public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie) Karlsruhe, Germany and the Donovan Collection, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario and Global Affairs Canada Visual Art Collection (ARBZ).





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Robert Bean @2020