BEVERLY SEMMES

Slip identifies throughlines in the practice of Beverly Semmes, featuring work from 1991 to the present, including early performance photographs, ceramic vessels, and new fabric sculptures. The works presented are quiet and clamorous, grandiose and humble, satirical and serious. This disparate pool of opposing effects is only achievable under the logic of performativity that the artist follows in her studio. The various media are indicative of Semmes' exploratory approach to creation, constantly unearthing new methods of storytelling and statement-making.

Beverly Semmes is known for her interdisciplinary practice, employing sculpture, painting, photography, videography, performance, and fashion as vehicles for her artistic explorations. After completing her degree at Yale, Semmes became widely known for her fabric work, creating robes, dresses, and other sartorial pieces that combined her interests in sculpture and fashion. The works, often larger-than-life in scale, balance the haptic and tactile qualities of textiles with obvious references to the female body, all while distinctly lacking one.

Made for her recent survey exhibition, Boulders / Flag / Flip / Kick at the Tufts University Art Galleries Billboards (2025) continues Semmes' use of fabric on a mammoth scale. Themes of domesticity are immediately apparent; the three silver robes stand shoulder to shoulder. The bathrobe, an inherently intimate garment, speaks to moments of privacy and interiority, while its title and visual resemblance to the eponymous advertising method do the opposite, generating tension between the public and the personal. The concept of "strength in numbers" can be seen throughout Semmes' fabric sculptures, in works like Chorus, now on display at the Brooklyn Museum, and Bow (Blue Curtain), where multiple tulle dresses are linked in unison. In these works, the viewer becomes the audience, experiencing the piece as a performance of disembodied singers and actors. Only Billboards disrupt the harmony as the central player turns away from the viewer, breaking the chain.

The desire for privacy or anonymity is likewise on display in the early photographs, documentation of performers clad in Semmes' creations: oversized velvet robes and Cloud Hats. Gathered around a table or backs to the camera, the women take on an air of mystery or intrigue in these captured moments of communion or collusion. The posing, garb, and simplicity of mise-en-scène lend the images a theatricality that is apparent throughout Semmes' practice. Identity and femininity are aspects of the self that are performed, something Semmes often returns to in her work.

The original Cloud Hats make an appearance in the exhibition, displayed here as discrete objects, and pick up the thread of potentially wearable and uncannily scaled artworks that Semmes became known for. Their resemblance to the titular forms indicates a keen sense of whimsy and playfulness, suggesting that those who don them have their "head in the clouds." While much of Semmes' practice deals in themes that bear their own inherent weight, most, if not all, of Semmes' work exudes a lightness and wry sense of humor that is a signature of the artist's ouevre. Vessels flagrantly and proudly spurn their utility, dresses and robes comically dwarf expectations, and her work in painting and photography winks at and titillates the viewer while simultaneously obfuscating and complicating the ethics of viewership.

In Semmes’ practice, sartorial items like dresses, robes, hats, and shoes do not merely stand in for bodies; they are intrinsic to humanity on a personal, psychological, and spiritual level, allowing the viewer to oscillate between object and self, fetish and function, performance and embodiment. Through this oscillation, Semmes reasserts these items not only as personal artifacts but as deeply embedded symbols within our cultural, psychological, and spiritual consciousness. She creates sites where desire, consumption, and selfhood remain unresolved.

BEVERLY SEMMES (b. Washington, D.C., 1958) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work incorporates sculpture, painting, drawing, film, photography, performance, and fashion. Based in New York, the artist was recently honored with a major survey exhibition at her alma mater, Tufts University, and has had solo exhibitions at MOCA Cleveland (2025); JOAN, Los Angeles (2022); the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle (2019); The Ginza Art Space, Tokyo (2000); the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (1996); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1995); and the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, PA (1993) among others. Work is currently on view in Everyday Rebellions: Collection Conversations at the Brooklyn Museum and Fabricated Imaginaries at the Rose Art Museum Brandeis University. Her work was recently included in group exhibitions Fictions of Display at MOCA LA, Los Angeles (2025), Generations: 150 Years of Sculpture at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; traveling in She Said, She Said: Contemporary Artists from the Rubell Collection, and Witch Hunt at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2021). Semmes' work can be found in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, among others. Semmes received her MFA in Sculpture (1987) from the Yale School of Art and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1982), where she has served on the Board of Governors since 2000.

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

* denotes required fields

Susan Inglett Gallery is committed to data security and to protecting your privacy. The gallery is in full compliance with requirements as stipulated by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Should you wish to change, update or delete any of your details, please contact us.

* denotes required fields

BEVERLY SEMMES: Slip

Cookie preferences

Join our mailing list

Viewing Room

Please check your email