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Carolyn Beegan didn’t declare herself an artist until 1994 when she gave up a successful career as a systems analyst in the oil industry. After five years of working and showing her oil paintings in Manhattan, she moved to Sag Harbor, New York to live and work full time.
A summa cum laude graduate of Manhattan College with a degree in computer science, her first exposure to art was the religious imagery that surrounded her in the sixteen years she spent in parochial schools. Her strict Irish Catholic upbringing is strongly manifested in much of her earlier paintings, including studies of religious iconography, fragments of a Sistine Chapel-like mural, and self-portraits of the artist as the Madonna. Her family ties to Ireland remain strong and she maintains both U.S. and Irish passports.
Although she studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan, Ms Beegan is primarily self-taught. She has traveled much of the globe—alone, with friends, and with rock bands — and currently resides most of the year in Cape Town, South Africa. She is curious, adventuresome and sybaritic, in steadfast pursuit of good food, wine, interesting encounters, and creative inspiration. In her travels she has filled scores of notebooks with sketches and drawings that illuminate her work.
A sense of texture and tactility distinguishes much of her art, as evidenced in many of her oil paintings. Her mixed media work — layers of paint, pencil, charcoal, marker, and computer-generated images (a small irony since she once swore-off the use of computers) are similarly layered and tactile. In the late 1990s she introduced her most controversial paintings called The Body Politic, a Georgia O’Keefe-like series of biomorphic self-portraits of her uterus based on internal photographs of Ms Beegan taken by her surgeon. Her personal philosophy of life is perhaps best embodied by her still life series of farm stand spoils: The paintings spill over the large canvases, literally overflowing with bounty, leaving little negative space.
Her esprit de vivre has inspired songs to be written about her, boats to be named after her, and a waltz dedicated to Lola, her Pug dog. Her work has been shown extensively in galleries in SoHo and Chelsea as well as throughout the East End of Long Island. Her art is in the collections of John Eastman, Larry Gagosian, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Elton John and Ron Perelman.
Born:1965, New York
Lives and works in: Sag Harbor, New York and Cape Town, South Africa
Education: Manhattan College, Summa Cum Laude, 1987
Art Student’s League of New York
NYU School of Professional Studies
Group Exhibitions:
2020 RECENT WORKS, The Cupping Room, New York, New York
2019 LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION, Julie Keyes Art, Sag Harbor, New York
2019 AMERICANA, Julie Keyes Art, Sag Harbor, New York
2018 East End Box Art Auction, East Hampton, New York
2017 Nasty Women for a Better World Exhibit, New York
Children's Museum of the East End, Bridgehampton, New York
East End Box Art Auction, East Hampton, New York
2016 East End Box Art Auction, East Hampton, New York
2015 East End Box Art Auction, East Hampton, New York
2014 East End Box Art Auction, East Hampton, New York
2011 Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, New York: Hamptons - Then and Now
2010 Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2008 Art at the Meetinghouse, Bridgehampton New York
2006 Dealer’s Choice, Arlene Bujese East Hampton New York
2005 Matter & Method, Arlene Bujese East Hampton New York
2004 Dealer’s Choice, Arlene Bujese East Hampton New York
On Paper / Of Paper Arlene Bujese East Hampton New York
2003 Dealer’s Choice, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
2002 Narrative: Real & Imagined, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
2001 On Paper/Of Paper, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
2000 Aspects of Nature, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
1999 Dealer’s Choice, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
1998 Point, Line, and Plane, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
Dealer’s Choice, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
1997 Wall to Wall, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
Methods and Materials, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
Seven, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
Affairs of the Heart, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
Wall to Wall, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
1996 Form as Function, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York
Realism: Shades of Correspondence, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, NY
Rock and Roll, Ambassador Galleries, Inc., New York, New York
1995 The Renaissance Woman, Ambassador Galleries, Inc., New York, New York
New Generation ’95, Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
Something Old, Something New, Renee Fotouhi Fine Arts, New York, NY
A Private View: In Situ, Renee Fotouhi Fine Arts, New York, New York
1994 Long Island Life, Uniondale Public Library, Uniondale, New York
Small Works, Millennium Gallery, East Hampton, New York
Arts & Antiques, Maidstone Arms, East Hampton, New York
Solo Exhibitions:
2020 The Cupping Room, Solo Exhibit, SoHo, New York
2016 Recent Works, Asgard Art, Cape Town, South Africa
2000 The Body Politic, George Billis Gallery, New York, New York
1999 Current Works, Arlene Bujese, East Hampton, New York,
1998 Selected Works, Sagpond Vineyards, Sagaponack, New York
1997 Selected Works, The American Hotel, Sag Harbor, New York
1996 Selected Works, Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
1995 On Display, Hammer Gallery, 57th Street, New York, New York
1995 Recent Works, Renee Fotouhi Fine Arts, East Hampton, New York
1994 A Common Thread, Uniondale Public Library, Uniondale, New York
Selected Bibliography:
2020 Blasiak, Karolina, Rosemont Art Advisory Monthly Newsletter, Monaco, April
2011 Casey, Eileen, A Debut Exhibit of a Rare Collaboration, Hamptons.Com, August
2009 Casey, Eileen, Artist Among Us, Hamptons.Com, August
2000 Friedman, Roger, The New York Observer, January 10, p.2
1999 Sansegundo, Sheridan, At The Galleries, The Easthampton Star, June
Tuma, Debbie, New Twist for Artist Carolyn Beegan, The Independent, June
1998 Still Life #1, Cover Reproduction, Dan’s Papers, Bridgehampton, New York, August
Dan’s Paper’s Goes To …, Dan’s Papers, January 9, p.24
Wolberg Weiss, Marion, Art Commentary, Dan’s Papers, October 9, p.81
Sansegundo, Sheridan, At The Galleries, The East Hampton Star, January
1997 Slivka, Rose, From The Studio, The East Hampton Star, October 23
Pinot Noir, Cover Reproduction, Dan’s Papers, May
Jedell, Joan, Flash, Newsday, June 9, p. A11
Community, Sag Harbor Express, December 25, p.5
Sansegundo, Sheridan, At The Galleries, The East Hampton Star, June 5, p. III-4
Indy Snaps, The Independent, June 11
1996 Slivka, Rose, From The Studio, The East Hampton Star, December 19, p. 111-3
Update on the Artist Carolyn Beegan, SunStorm Fine Arts
Just The Way You Art, New York Daily News
Begin the Beegan, The Independent, May
Produce #1, Cover Reproduction, Dan’s Papers, May
Burnet, Ishbel, Poet, Playwright, Painter Carolyn Beegan – A Renaissance Woman for
the Nineties, SunStorm Fine Arts
1995 SoHo Gallery & The Renaissance Woman, Dan’s Papers, December 8, p. 19
Bacchus, Cover Reproduction, Dan’s Papers, July
Carolyn Beegan: New Face on the Art Scene, The East Hampton Star
Wolberg Weiss, Marion, Honoring The Artist: Carolyn Beegan, Dan’s Papers, June, p.4
1994 Artist Kicks Career Habit for Canvas, The Long Beach Herald, April
At The Millennium, The East Hampton Star, December 22
Saturday Night Art, The Independent, November 30
Television Interviews:
1999 Current Art and Cultural Events, LTV Beach Hampton ’99, June
1998 Opening Night at Sagpond Vineyards, News 12 Long Island, October
1997 “Seven” at the Arlene Bujese Gallery, TV55 Interview with the Artist, June
1996 “Renaissance Woman” at the Ambassador Galleries, CNN Showbiz, November
CBS Entertainment Tonight, November
WORTV, UPN 9 News, November
1995 Judy Licht Interviews the Artist, ABC Eyewitness News, July
Opening Night at the Millennium Gallery, LTV Special
