OK Gallery announces its inaugural summer 2022 season with a new work by Chris Beeston. In his first presentation with the gallery, Lamp 700 (Big Rainbow) showcases his most recent addition to a long-running series of lamps. These functional sculptures, fabricated from dollar-store food containers and other found objects, feature the hallmarks of Beeston’s mathematically driven construction and custom-fitted,energy-efficient LEDs. While early lamps typically centered one eye-catching storage tub or iconic design item,  his latest work has evolved into “stacks” made from containers sold as nesting sets, ideally adorned with vibrant floral patterns or color-coded lids.   

Stacking represents a primordial and peaceful form of building, like a child making a tower of blocks or beachgoers constructing makeshift cairns. A stack is an ordinal list, a size-based system of organization, a physical grammar. His work suggests an architecture of disposable goods, whose worth is reclaimed through meticulous effort. If height is the implicit goal, Lamp 700 (Big Rainbow) is the current record holder (its seven containers rising a combined 25 inches). 

Beeston hopes that every lamp stirs a unique feeling in a dark room, and Lamp 700 obliges by casting a hazy rainbow on nearby surfaces. The artist’s fascination with home goods highlights a belief that people desire deeper, more emotional connections with their surroundings—and, as important, a sense of play.

Raised in rural North Carolina, Beeston earned a B.A. in studio art from Davidson College before moving to New York in 2008. For more than a decade, he worked as a studio assistant to Tom Sachs, focusing on sculpture fabrication and custom electronics. Beeston is based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and is represented by Patrick Parrish Gallery. He has also shown with Coustof Waxman, Colette, and The Hole.

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