WALEAD BESHTY (b. 1976)

Walead Beshty is a Los Angeles-based artist and writer. Beshty earned a Bachelor of Arts from Bard College in 1999, and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Art in 2002. He is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Art Department at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and has taught at numerous schools including University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Irvine; the California Institute of the Arts; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and the MFA Program at Bard College. Beshty has exhibited widely in numerous institutions and galleries around the world.

Although Beshty is most known for his work in photography, his bodies of work span a large variety of media including sculpture, painting, installation, and video. First produced in 2007, the FedEx works are made of either laminated glass (clear or two-way mirror) or raw polished copper constructed to the size of standardized FedEx shipping boxes. The works are then shipped to their destination by FedEx’s Express service. The glass works are shipped inside FedEx shipping boxes of the same size, which act as both part of the work and a support for the glass portion when exhibited. The glass works are shipped unprotected, so that cracks appear with each successive shipment. The polished copper works are shipped without a standard FedEx box, so that any handling by the courier imprints onto the surface of the work by oxidation. The FedEx waybills, customs documentation, and any shipping stickers added to the box are considered part of the work.