BA CSUN 2010
MFA CSULA 2014
Collin Stafford is ½ of Beck+Col, a Los Angeles artist duo who have been working exclusively in collaboration since 2014. Through costume-based performance and video, they build alternate universes that are populated by monsters, spawning a counter-mythology and queering of existing norms. Their work is not human-centered. Instead, it privileges the monster, challenging what is/is not human. The aggressive colors, ornate monsters, and corresponding sets create a hyperreal setting of excess that fosters an overwhelming weirdness.
Their work manifests the ambient violence of capitalism to give abstract concepts of oppression form that can be physically engaged with. They question individualism, both in practice and in content. Inherently collaborative, their practice also features other artists and performers working together to create large works. They highlight the effects of atomization and, in contrast, the power of community. Their performances create a communal event, countering the alienation of capitalism. The representation of violence provokes an embodied response in the viewer, prompting a shared experience of becoming monsters themselves. The playfulness of their monsters and the lightness of the materials contrast the brutality and gore of the performances.
Beck+Col has performed at numerous venues, including the Hammer Museum, REDCAT, and JOAN Los Angeles. They have had multiple solo exhibitions at Human Resources, and their work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Royal College of Music in Sweden, Colección AMALITA in Buenos Aires, and at Biquini WAX EPS in Mexico City. Beck+Col has received multiple FCA grants and was nominated for a Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist grant in 2019. They have been invited to host art education workshops and lectures with the Hammer Museum, the Craft Contemporary Museum, the 18th Street Art Center, and the City of Santa Monica.
In the Spring of 2020, Beck+Col were the artists in residence for the San Diego International Airport Performing Arts Residency and represented LACE at the Art Los Angeles Contemporary fair. Cohosts of ART TALK Talk talk, created while Beck+Col were in residency at UNLV in 2021. B+C was one of LAPP's Research and Development artists in Residence in 2022. In 2023 they will have solo shows at Woodbury University, The Art Room and Angels Gate Cultural Center.
Solo
2023 Red Night, The Art Room, Los Angeles, CA
Part Two! A shadow out of the light, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA
Part One! a shadow out of the dark Nan Rae Gallery at Woodbury University, Los Angeles
2021 The Revolting Lumpen! lumpen station, Adams Square Gas Station, Glendale, CA
2020 The Revolting Lumpen! a smaller classical opera, presented by LACE at ALAC, Los Angeles
2019 The Revolting Lumpen! a classical opera reboot, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles
The Revolting Lumpen! a classical opera, D300 CalArts, Valencia, CA
2018 The Monstern! Live, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles
2017 Monster Romp! Live, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles
The Monstern! Live, D301 CalArts, Valencia, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions+ Performances
2023 Cantadora Shamana de Cabaret, Collaboration with Carmina Escobar, LACE, Los Angeles
Part Two! a shadow out of the light, PAA Fringe Benefit, Art Center, Pasadena, CA
2022 Triad Revolutions to Gurdjieff, Tertium Organum, Center for Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles
REDCAT Gala, REDCAT, Los Angeles
2021 Bend, ESMOA, El Segundo Museum of Art, El Segundo, CA
Horror Without End! doubling portals, Geffen Playhouse Lobby, Los Angeles
Horror Without End! doubling, Performance at Torrance Art Museum
Horror Without End! parasitic symbiosis, Kleur Bekennen at PLAY room, Zaandam, Netherlands
Virtual Exhibition at Coastline College, Newport, CA
2020 Malignant Accumulation, S.O.S fundraiser to get out the vote, Track16, Los Angeles, CA
Horror Without End! trespass, CalArts Halloween Alumni showcase
Horror Without End! Parasitic Symbiosis, Operational Statements booth, OPAF, Los Angeles
Monstern Saloon, Dramas de Otro Mundo, Colección AMALITA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2019 The Revolting Lumpen! a procession, COAST, Santa Monica, CA
Spectre of Lost Futures! an undead aria, Haunts, JOAN Gallery, Los Angeles
Lumpy Song, Elliot Reed Brunch Construct: Shifting Variable Options Welcome, 123
Astronaut Gallery, Los Angeles
Lumpy Song, 18th St Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA
Monstern Saloon, Video in Site: The Action Film, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Lumpy Scream, Project Scream (link), a curatorial sound project by Carmina Escobar, Fy
and Tom Leeser
2018 Passively Rotting Mass, Super Flexible, graduating MFA group show, CalArts
Runaway Puppet!, Hallow's Eve Artists Maze, Bob Baker Marionette Theater, Los Angeles
Pink Lumphoma, Fundraiser for Swing Left, Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles
Rainbow Face! on Vacation, Desert Daze Music+Art Festival, Lake Perris, CA
Monstern Saloon, Videohouse 3, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles; Deslave, Tijuana, Mexico
and Biquini WAX EPS, Mexico City, Mexico
Nah Oblivion (collaboration with Elliot Reed), Touch Me Cut Me Feel Me Volume II, Wild
Embeddings, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Monstar Smash, Desert Daze Music+Art Festival, Joshua Tree, CA
Rainbow Face!, Coast Festival, Santa Monica, CA
Monster Mass, Third Shift Festival, St. John, NB, Canada
Monstar, Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden
MonsterRock, Tote Your Float, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Monster Romp Live!, In Real Life: Studio, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Residencies
2022 Los Angeles Performance Practice Research & Development Residency
2021 ART TALK Talk talk, UNLV Virtual Artist in Residence, Las Vegas, NV
2020 Davyd Whaley Foundation Desert House Residency Grant, Joshua Tree, CA
The Revolting Lumpen! a series, San Diego International Airport Performing Arts
Residency, San Diego, CA
2017 Rainbow Face! on Vacation, Annenberg Community Beach House, Santa Monica, CA
Press, Publications + Grants
2023 "10 Art Shows to See in LA This June" Hyperallergic
"Meet The Mannerist Monsters of Beck+Col" LAWEEKLY
2022 "Beck+Col Bathe Their Critique of Capital in Buckets of Blood" Hyperallergic
2021 SCVTV interview and feature for their Finding Art series
2020 Rema Hort Emerging Artist Grant Nominee
Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant
2019 Haunts, CalArts MFA 2019 Graduate Catalog
CalArts Interdisciplinary Grant
The Monstern!, Emergency Index, Vol. 8
2018 Interview for Third Shift Catalogue
2017 Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant
Rainbow Face Live!, Emergency Index, Vol. 6
2021-Present, Part-time Faculty, Otis College of Art and Design
2019-Present, Adjunct Instructor, Victor Valley College