올리버 비어(Oliver Beer)는 음악 작곡 학사 취득 이후 옥스퍼드 대학교 러스킨 예술대학(Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford)에서 순수예술을 전공하였으며, 파리 소르본 대학(Sorbonne Université)에서 영화 이론을 수학하였다. 작가의 미술과 음악에의 배경은 퍼포먼스, 영화, 설치, 조각 등 다양한 장르 전반에 걸쳐 반영되며, 특히 각종 사물에 내재된 음악적 특성이나 신체와 공간과의 소리적 관계성을 탐구하는 데서 여실히 드러난다. 친밀하면서도 보편적인 감정을 다루는 작가의 다학제적 작업은 종종 그의 주변 관계로부터 기인하는데, 자신에게 개인적으로 의미가 있는 친숙한 소재를 소리나 추억과 결합하여 선보임으로써 공통의 감정과 인식을 끌어내기를 유도한다. 비어가 대상과 공간을 구현하고 탐구하는 방식에서 역사와 세대, 그리고 문화 전반에 걸쳐 반향을 일으키는 음악의 통합 가능성에 대한 작가의 고찰을 확인할 수 있다.
비어가 꾸준히 이어가고 있는 음성 퍼포먼스 ⟨The Resonance Project⟩(2007– )는 음성과 건물 내부와의 자연스러운 하모니를 활성화하기 위한 작업으로, 시드니 오페라 하우스(Sydney Opera House)와 파리의 팔레 드 도쿄(Palais de Tokyo), 이스탄불의 터키식 목욕탕, 그리고 브라이튼(Brighton) 하수구까지 다양한 공간과 호흡을 맞춘 바 있다. 이에 대해 작가는 “주파수를 적절히 조율하면 공간은 가수의 목소리가 가진 에너지를 온전히 받아들인다. 가수가 음을 속삭인다 할 지라도 공간은 목소리를 완전히 흡수하고 공명하며 그의 존재를 가리고 가수와 하나가 된다. 음을 만들지 않고는 공간을 만들 수 없다.”고 이야기한다. 작가의 이러한 원칙은 뉴욕 메트로폴리탄 미술관 소장품 중 내부가 비어있는 오브제들을 활용하여 선보인 ⟨Vessel Orchestra⟩(2019)에서도 적용되었다. 그는 각각 본연의 음높이가 내재된 오브제들을 선택하고 배열함으로써 기념비적인 악기로 재탄생시키며, 미술관 소장품의 청각적 초상화 형태로써 구현하였다.
비어는 자신의 기억이나 소리와 연관된 사물을 절단하고 개별적 요소들로 해체시킨 후 합성 수지로 고정한다. 이렇게 재정립된 부조 형식의 ‘이차원 조각’을 통해 작가는 물질과 우리가 그 위에 남긴 흔적을 해부하고 분리한다. 작가가 선별하는 사물들은 일반 악기 뿐만 아니라 할머니의 장신구나 할아버지의 담뱃대 등 집안의 가보 또한 포함된다. 작가만의 조형적 언어를 사용함으로써 그는 삼차원의 사물을 이차원의 세계로 끌어들이고, 다양한 각도에서의 동시적 지각을 가능케하는 ‘물리적 큐비즘’을 고안하였다. 비어는 소리가 마치 초음파 영상처럼 물질을 관통하고 선형적으로 이동한다는 점에 주목한다. 표면을 넘어서지 못하는 빛과 달리 표면과 물질을 넘나드는 소리를 활용함으로써, 표면적 세계 너머의 또 다른 세계를 인식하도록 한다.
2013년도부터 갤러리 타데우스 로팍의 소속 작가로 활동을 이어온 비어는 현재 런던과 파리를 오가며 작업 및 전시 활동을 활발히 이어가고 있다. 2013년 리옹 비엔날레에서 작품을 선보인 이후 작가는 ⟨The Resonance Project⟩를 발전시켜 타데우스 로팍 팡탕 갤러리 공간에서 전시하였다. 비어는 팔레 드 도쿄(Palais de Tokyo), 워터밀 센터(Watermill Centre), 시드니 오페라 하우스(Sydney Opera House), 그리고 에르메스 재단(Fondation d'entreprise Hermès)의 레지던시에 참여하며 작가로서의 입지를 다졌으며, 그의 작업은 뉴욕 메트로폴리탄 미술관의 분관 멧 브로이어(The MET Breuer, New York)와 모마 PS1(MoMA PS1, New York), 파리 퐁피두 센터(Centre Pompidou, Paris), 루이비통 재단(Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris), 팔레 드 도쿄(Palais de Tokyo, Paris), 베르사유 궁전(Palace of Versailles, Paris), 리옹 현대미술관(Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon), 아이콘 갤러리(Ikon Gallery, Birmingham), 빌스(WIELS, Brussels), 이스탄불 비엔날레(2015), 시드니 비엔날레(2018) 등 전세계 유수의 기관 및 전시에서 선보여진 바 있다.
2025
Reanimation Paintings: A Thousand Voices / Part 2, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Resonance Paintings: The Cave, Thaddaeus Ropac Marais, Paris, France
2024
Reanimation Paintings: A Thousand Voices / Part 1, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Resonance Project: The Cave, 17e Biennale de Lyon ‘Les voix des fleuves’, Les Grandes Locos, Lyon, France
Resonance paintings - Nymphéas, Normandie Impressionniste, FRAC Normandie / Le Hangar 107, Rouen, France
Beginner’s Luck, Tao Art, Taipei City, Taiwan
Resonance Paintings - Cat Orchestra, Almine Rech, Tribeca, New York, USA
2023
Recompositions: Night Revels, Almine Rech, Shanghai, China
Oliver Beer: Albion Waves, London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, London, UK
Oliver Beer: Resonance Paintings—Blue Notes, Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
2022
Oliver Beer: Resonance Paintings – Two Notes, Thaddaeus Ropac, Seoul, South Korea
2021
Composition for Mouths (Songs My Mother Taught Me), Opéra Garnier, Paris, France
Ghost Notes (Part I), THE CLUB, Tokyo, Japan
2020
Oliver Beer: Oma, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK
2019
A Thousand Faces (in collaboration with Louvre Abu Dhabi), Al Jahili Fort / Qasr al Hosn, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Oliver Beer: Vessel Orchestra, Met Breuer, New York, NY, USA
Recomposition (Baloo Stripped Bare), Manif d'art 9 - The Quebec City Biennial, Galerie des arts visuels, Quebec City, Canada
Household Gods, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Mona Confessional (permanent installation), Mona – Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia
Oliver Beer: Impossible Composition, University of New South Wales Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2018
Reanimation (Alice Falling), Ruya Foundation, Baghdad, Iraq
Reanimation (Snow White), George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, USA
Oliver Beer: Impossible Composition, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2017
Oliver Beer: New Performance & Sculpture, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK
Oliver Beer, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2015
Life, Death and Tennis, Daiwa Art Prize 2015 Exhibition, Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
Deconstructing Sound, Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan
Making Tristan, Artist in Residence, Watermill Center, New York, NY, USA
Call to Sound, Istanbul Biennale, Kilic Ali Pasa Hamam, Istanbul, Turkey
2014
Composition For a New Museum, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Diabolus in Musica, Thaddaeus Ropac, Pantin, France
Rabbit Hole, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France
Prospectif Cinéma 2014: Oliver Beer, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2013
Composition For Hearing An Architectural Space, Thaddaeus Ropac, Pantin, France
Outside-In (permanent installation), Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
The Resonance Project, Art Brussels, WIELS Contemporary art centre, Belgium, Brussels
The Resonance Project: Deep and Meaningful, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2012
KLANG, Palais de Tokyo Art Club, Paris, France
2011
The Resonance Project: Pay and Display, Autumn Almanac, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2010
Deep and Meaningful, murmurART, 20 Hoxton Square, London, UK
Training, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2009
Die Budgie History, Dolphin Gallery, Oxford, UK
2008
The Resonance Project, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2007
Oliver Beer, La Viande Gallery, London, UK
2025
Énormément bizarre: Jean Chatelus collection. Donation fondation Antoine de Galbert, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
The Life of Things, Voorlinden, The Netherlands
2024
50-90, final exhibition in the 10th-anniversary series, Long Museum, Shanghai, China
Prosodic Grains, BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou, China
A Blue-Flowering Day, curated by Evonne Jiawei Yuan, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China
Excavation: Macro to the Micro, curated by Deborah Smith, Vortic and Koko, London, UK
Sur tes lèvres, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France
Les Fantômes de l’Opéra #3, Opéra de Rennes / Frac Bretagne, Rennes, Franc
A toi de choisir !, Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie, Toulouse, France
Double Take, LVH Art, London, UK
Pop up polychrome, ART & SPORT / Grand Palais Rmn, Mulhouse, France
History: A microcosmic perspective, 20/21 espacio de arte, Tijarafe, La Palma, Spain
I Never Dream Otherwise than Awake Journeys in Sound, Centre Pompidou x Westbund Museum, Shanghai, China
The Architecture of Staged Realities - (re)constructing Disney, arc en rêve centre d’architecture, Bordeaux, France
In House, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2023
L’autre musée, the treasures of a major contemporary art collection, Frac Bretagne, Rennes, France
Un Lac Inconnu, Bally Foundation, Villa Heleneum, Lugano, Switzerland
Je(ux) en construction, Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse / Médiathèque Grand M, Toulouse, France
2022
L'enfance dans la collection Agnès B., La Fab., Paris, France
Formes du transfert, cur. Gaël Charbau, Magasins généraux, Fondation Hermès, Pantin, France
The Woman in the Window, between the arts, Tokyo, Japan
Uncombed, Unforeseen, Unconstrained, Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello, Venice, Italy
2021
British Art Show 9, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and University of Wolverhampton School of Art, Wolverhampton; Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen; The Box, KARST, The Arts Institute's Levinsky Gallery and The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art, Plymouth; HOME, Manchester Art Gallery, Castlefield Gallery, The Whitworth and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester, UK
Murs du Son (Infinite Variations on a Theme), Venet Foundation, Le Muy, France
The Still Point, THE CLUB, Kudan House, Tokyo, Japan
Flat Work, cur. Ryan Gander, Solid Haus, Melton, UK
Sables brûlants (Burning Sands), La Grande Place, Musée du Cristal Saint-Louis, Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche, France
Polyphone, Kunstsammlung Gera and Museum für Angewandte Kunst Gera, Gera, Germany
Sound Vision: Harmonious Relationships in Art and Music, Lehman College Art Gallery, City University of New York, NY, USA
When in Doubt, Go to a Museum, City Museum of Ljubljana, Slovenia
2020
Inner Space, Oliver Beer Studio, London, UK
Rendez-vous, Voorlinden Museum, Wassenaar, Netherlands
and suddenly it all blossoms, Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA2), Riga, Latvia
10th Anniversary Exhibition, Mona – Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia
2019
Collectionner au XXIe siècle: De leur temps (6), Collection Lambert, Avignon, France
Where We Now Stand – In Order to Map the Future, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Hidden Pulse, Vivid Live (in collaboration with M+), Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
Syncopation: Contemporary encounters with the Modern Masters, Pola Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan
...Et l'obscur, L'Abbaye du Thoronet (in collaboration with Le Palais de Tokyo, Paris), Le Thoronet, France
Hypertimes, FuturDome, Milan, Italy
Oliver Beer, Rassegna di video arte del XXI secolo al MACRO, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome, Italy
2018
21st Biennale of Sydney, Sydney Opera House and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Wonderland, ACMI, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract/ion, Galerie Klüser, Munich, Germany
The Myriad Forms of Visual Art: 196 Works with 19 Themes, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
À bâtons rompus, les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France
2017
Voyage d'hiver, cur. Palais de Tokyo, Château de Versailles, Versailles, France
Sans réserve: Exposition des oeuvres de la collection, MAC VAL - Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
7th Socle du Monde Biennale, Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark
2016
Polyphonies, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
VG Award Exhibition, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK
Nuit Blanche 2016, Paris, France
Imprisoned, Jailbreak, Imprisoned, Jailbreak, AOYAMA/MEGURO, Tokyo, Japan
2015
Collective Collection, Le BBB centre d'art, Toulouse, France
Where the day begins, Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France
Daiwa Foundation Art Prize Exhibition 2015, Daiwa Foundation Japan House, London, UK
Sounds Like Music, D+T Project Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2014
Orkest!, Netwerk / Center for Contemporary Art, Aalst, Belgium
Condensation, Atelier Hermès, Seoul, South Korea
Bright Intervals, cur. Palais de Tokyo, Sunday Sessions, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY, USA
Condensation, Le Forum, Maison Hermès, Tokyo, Japan
Saint Jerome, Meessen de Clerq, Brussels, Belgium
2013
Oliver Beer | Shingo Yoshida, Villa Arson, Nice, France
The Present is Unfinished, 12th Biennale de Lyon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Nouvelles Vagues, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2012
100 Curators, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Nuit Blanche 2012, Paris, France
2nd Biennale de Belleville, Paris, France
Whitstable Biennale 2012, Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable, UK
(Entre)Ouverture, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Hebbel Theatre, Berlin, Germany
FRAC Corsica (with Pavillon Neuflize OBC), Corte, France
Pavillon Neuflize OBC, Palais de Tokyo, Ménagerie de Verre, Paris, France
La Part de l'Ombre, Galerie de Roussan, Paris, France
2011
Mindful, Old Vic Tunnels, London, UK
Saatchi Gallery at The Big Chill Festival, Eastnor Castle, Hertfordshire, UK
2010
Sir John Soane's Museum, London, UK
Anticipation 2010, Selfridges, London, UK
Ruskin Shorts, Oxford Playhouse, Oxford, UK
Concrete and Glass, 20 Hoxton Square, London, UK
Reflections, DNA Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2009
New Sensations 2009 (org. The Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4), A Foundation, Rochelle School, London, UK
Resonance FM, online, London, UK
Ruskin Degree Show 2009, The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Ruskin Shorts, Phoenix Picturehouse, Oxford, UK
2008
ICA, Performance with Goodbooks, London, UK
20 Eventi, Rome, Italy
Box Ladder, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
Beaconsfield Gallery, performance with Matmos, London, UK
Vivarosi Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2007
Chelsea College of Art, London, UK
2006
Beardsmore Gallery (with Oliver Barratt), London, UK
Balaton Film Festival, Balatonfüred, Hungary
Vivarosi Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
Australia
Mona - Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania
China
Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China
France
Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris
Collection du MAC Val
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
FRAC Bretagne, Rennes
Kadist Collection, Paris
Le Plateau, Frac Île-de-France, Paris
Les Abattoirs, Musée – FRAC Occitanie Toulouse, Toulouse
Musée national d'arts moderne du Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée d'art contemporain – MAC, Lyon
Venet Foundation, Le Muy
India
RMZ Foundation, Bangalore
Japan
National Museum of Art, Osaka
Monaco
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco
Netherlands
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar
Norway
Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker
United Arab Emirates
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi
UK
Arts Council Collection
GOSH Arts Programme, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
USA
Kramlich Collection, San Francisco, CA
2021
Mondes Nouveaux – National Culture Prize, Paris, France
2017
Artist in Residence, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
2015
Daiwa Art Prize 2015 (winner), Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London, UK
Artist in Residence, Watermill Center, New York, NY, USA
2013
Artist in Residence, Villa Arson, Nice, France
2012
Artist in Residence, Fondation Hermès, Saint-Louis glass manufacturer, France
2011
Artist in Residence, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2010
Arts Council England Award and Commission
2009
New Sensations 2009 (winner), Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4, London, UK