Faculty:

Don Beck

ILLUMINATED GLASS
Senior Lecturer
(BFA, University of Texas at Arlington)

office: SAC-160A
phone: 817-272-7090
email: donbeck@uta.edu

Biography

Senior Lecturer Don Beck has been involved with neon art since the late 70’s and has had studios in Chicago, Las Vegas and Dallas’ Deep Ellum district.  He has worked with other glass artists such as Bruce Nauman, Steven Antonakos, Chryssa and Dale Chihuly.  His work ranges from architectural elements to large scale illuminated murals.  His multi-media and animated pieces have been shown in a number of galleries and museums internationally as well as in private collections.  Working with the film and video community, his work has appeared in nine feature films and in over 75 TV commercials.  The newest work reflects a desire to break out of the normally associated criteria for neon “tubing” work and to explore blown and lampworked glass as well as combining fabrics, paper, wood and metals with the glass.  A standard “anthem” of art is that it is “all about the light”.  Beck believes the logical extension of that thought in contemporary art is to “provide your own light as an integral part of the work”.