About Beth Lilly

Beth Lilly is an artist whose photographs, installations and videos investigate how we become what we are and the role choice, chance and circumstance play in that ongoing evolution. Her work resides in the permanent collections of the High Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, MOCA GA, the Zuckerman Museum and many private collections. Her critically acclaimed performance/interactive project “The Oracle @ WiFi” was published by Kehrer Verlag and other projects have been featured in ‘Noplaceness: Art in a Post-Urban Landscape’ and ‘Earth Now: American Landscape Photographers and the Environment’. Recent exhibitions include New Mexico Museum of Art, The High Museum of Art, the Zuckerman Museum, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Whitespace Gallery, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, and the Center for Fine Art Photography. A Hambidge Fellow, she also received grants and awards from the Fulton County Arts Council, APG/High Museum, Society for Photographic Education and Atlanta Celebrates Photography. Her work has been reproduced and reviewed in such publications as Lensculture, Art Papers, Papermag, Burnaway, The Bitter Southerner, Atlanta Magazine and ArtsATL. In addition to her personal work, she teaches, curates, and serves on the Board of the Atlanta Photography Group. Lilly holds an MFA in Photography from Georgia State University and an A.B.J. in Telecommunication Arts from the University of Georgia. She currently lives and farms in Clarkston, Georgia. 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2017 “Knowing and Not Knowing”, Forward Arts Foundation, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2016 “Marking Time: The Zuckerman Cairn”, a permanent interactive sculpture, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Georgia

2015 “Beth Lilly: A Moving Image of Eternity”, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

2014 “Like No Tomorrow,” Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, Georgia

2012 “every single one of these stories is true”, The Hagedorn Foundation Gallery, Atlanta, 

Georgia

“Beth Lilly: Oracle”, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins Colorado

2008  “Beth Lilly: The Oracle @ WiFi”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, GA

2007  “Myths, Monsters, and Manipulations”, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

2006 “The Myths of Trees”, Vanderbilt University, Sarratt Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee

2004 “The Myths of Trees”, Eleanor D Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia

2021 “You Are Here”, Slow Exposures Photography Festival, Juror Brian Piper, Assistant Curator of Photographs, New Orleans Museum of Art, Zebulon, GA

2020 “Strange Time”, Atlanta Photography Group Gallery, Atlanta GA

“Ensemble”, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta GA

2019 “Bringing Together: Recent Acquisitions”, New Mexico Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

“Choice, Chance and Circumstance”, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta, GA

2016 “What Is Near: Reflections On Home”, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta Georgia

2015 “Seventh Juried Annuale”, The Light Factory, Charlotte NC, juried by Dennis Kiel

2013 “Portfolio 2014”, curated by Karen Irvine, Atlanta Photography Group

“A Sense Of Place”, curated by Amy Miller, Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, GA

“Artists Photographing Artists”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta

2012 Slow Exposures Festival 10th Annual Exhibition, Jurors Julian Cox and Brett Abbot, Georgia

“The Airport Show: 2012”, Atlanta Photography Group exhibition at the airport atrium, Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, GA

“From Cosmology To Neurology And Back Again”, Whitespace, Atlanta Georgia

“Paper Moon”, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Georgia

“Ones to Watch”, Atlanta Celebrates Photography Festival, curator Mary Stanley

2011 “Earth Now: American Landscape Photographers and the Environment”, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe New Mexico

“Home”, Hagedorn Foundation Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

“Brett Abbott Selects”, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, Atlanta

2010 “Woman’s Work”, Hagedorn Foundation Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

2009 “14thAnnual Juried Exhibition”, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, Massachusetts

2008  “Chance Operations” Climate Theater, San Francisco, California

“Columbus Museum: King Biennial”, The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus Georgia

“Adventures in Mysticism”, Athens Institute of Contemporary Art, Athens, Georgia

2007  “New Works”, Online Gallery, Silver Eye Center For Photography, Philadelphia, 

Pennsylvania

“Young Movers and Shakers”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, 

Georgia

2006 “Inventing Nature”, Georgia Perimeter College, Decatur, Georgia

2005 “Photography Now: 2005”, curated by Bill Hunt, Woodstock Center for Photography, NY 

“As They See It: Georgia Photographers” Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta

“Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Photography”, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana

2004 “The Myths of Trees” (solo), Eleanor D Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia

“Southeastern Juried Exhibition” Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama

“Alternative Processes”, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, New York

“Landscapes” galerie m.c., Atlanta, Georgia

“The Photo Review Competition”, University of the Arts, Gallery 1401, Philadelphia, PA

2003 “The Essence of Nature”, The Swan Coach House, Forward Arts Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia 

High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA

New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe NM

Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana

Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Georgia

Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta Georgia

Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, Atlanta GA

Eleanor D. Wilson Museum of Art, Hollins University, Roanoke Virginia

Bibliography

Monographs

· Lilly, Beth, ‘The Oracle @ WiFi, Kehrer Verlag’, Heidelberg, Germany 2012

· Cullum, Jerry, Fox, Catherine and Hicks, Cinque, ‘Noplaceness: Art in a Post-Urban Landscape’ Atlanta Art Now, 2011

· Ware, Katherine, ‘Earth Now: American Landscape Photographers and the Environment’, New Mexico Museum of Art, 2011

Press

· Bitter Southerner, Nighttime Is A Place, March 2021

· Burnaway, ‘A Studio Visit With Beth Lilly’, 2017

· Arts ATL, ‘Review: “What Is Near: Reflections On Home” proves to be quietly disarming collection”, Donna Mintz, 2016

· Burnaway, ‘Driven To Distraction: Beth Lilly at Whitespace’, Matthew Terrel, 2015

· Arts ATL, ‘The year in review: Our critics’ picks for most memorable Atlanta art exhibits of 2012’, ArtsATL Staff, January 4, 2013

· Arts ATL, ‘Review: In Whitespace’s “From Cosmology to Neurology” Images converse amid an ocean of ideas’ Evan Levy, July 19, 2012

· Burnaway, Juarez, Kristin, “Beth Lilly Mines the Currency of Her Memory Bank at Hagedorn”, May 5, 2012

· ArtsATL.com, Cullum, Jerry, “Truth is a red herring in Beth Lilly’s mysterious narratives at Hagedorn”, April 4, 2012

· Boston Phoenix, Cook, Greg, “Water World”, June 9, 2009

· Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fox, Catherine, “‘Gifted”, October 4, 2009

· Zoum Zoum, “Oracle photographique” French newspaper ‘La Liberation,’ blog, November 2008,

· Lens Culture, Interview, May 2008

· Art Papers, Marshall, Piper, “The Oracle @ WiFi” (review), January/February 2007

· Papermag.com, Gartenfeld, Alex, “Cell Your Soul: The Oracle at WiFi Phones in Your Future”, December 2006

· Atlanta Magazine, “Uniting Opposites #1” (reproduction) May 2005

· The Photo Review, “Uniting Opposites #5” (reproduction) First Quarter, 2005

2021 Critical Mass Top 200

2015 Commission of permanent installation, “Marking Time” Zuckerman Museum of Art, Permanent Art 

Installation

2014 APG/High Museum Purchase Award

2013 Studio Artist Residency, Contemporary Art Center of Atlanta

2012 Society for Photographic Education, Grant

2011 Critical Mass Top 200

2009 Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Annual Public Art Project Grant

2007 Artist Residency Fellowship at the Hambidge Center, Fulton County GA

2004 Honorable Mention, The Photo Review, University of the Arts, Gallery 1401, juror Kate Ware

1993 Individual Artist's Grant, Dekalb Fine Arts Council, Dekalb County, Georgia - 1993

2021 Griffin Museum of Photography, April Chat Chat Series

2017 Forward Arts Foundation, Swan House Gallery

2016 High Museum of Art

1989-1993 Master of Fine Arts in Photography Georgia State University

Additional studies in Artist's Books and Art History

1981-1985 Bachelor of Arts in Journalism University of Georgia (cum laude)

Telecommunications Major - Radio/TV/Film Production