Bekka Teerlink has no hometown; she moved frequently as a child which led her to escape into daydreams and build a sense of home in her mind to take wherever she went. She was always the outside observer which allowed her to see things fresh, and make connections in her mind between very different places, things, experiences that she collected along the way. In her work, she creates magical realist landscapes full of symbolism and suggestions of narrative and commentary on the world around her.

Teerlink has a BA from Brandeis University in Studio Fine Arts Painting with a minor in Creative Writing Poetry and an MFA in Cinema-Television Production/Cinematography from the University of Southern California. She currently lives in Medford MA, and has a studio at Vernon Street Studios in Somerville, MA, and works at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Artist Resume

Education

2003 MFA, Cinema-Television Production, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
2000 BA, Studio Fine Arts, Creative Writing (Poetry) minor, Brandeis University, Waltham MA
1999 Yale Summer School of Art at Norfolk, Norfolk CT

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 Smallish Works, Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA,
2023 BLUE, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
2023 Blue: The Celebration of a Color, Somerville Art Museum, Somerville, MA
2023 As Luck Would Have It, 13FOREST Gallery, Arlington, MA.
2023 Pulse of the Making, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA.
2023 National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
2023 ArtsWorcester, The Twentieth ArtsWorcester Biennial, Worcester MA
2023 Red, Workshop 13, Ware, MA.
2022 Dark Tales, Familiars and Object of Divination, Inside-Out Gallery, Somerville Arts
Council, Somerville, MA 2022
2022 Courageous Colors, Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington, MA
2022 Mary Schein Fall Salon, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
2022 National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
2022 VIVID: Expressions of Intense Color, Artist Group of Charlestown, Charlestown, MA
2021 Inside Out Gallery, Somerville Arts Council, Somerville, MA
2021 SOS: Small Works Show, Bow Market, Somerville, MA
2010 Alumni Exhibition, Brandeis University, Waltham MA
2009 Art Gone Green, Bunker Hill Community College, Charlestown, MA
2008 Diverted Destruction, The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Spring Arts Collective, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Persons of Interest, Art Slave Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Cannibal Flower, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Transformations, Create:Fixate, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Spring Arts Collective, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Gallery at the End of the World, Altadena, CA

Awards / Grants / Fellowships

2023 Best in Show, Red, Workshop 13, Ware, MA
2022 Honorable Mention, Mary Schein Fall Salan, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
2018 June Artist of the Month, Somerville Arts Council, Somerville, MA
2012 LCC Visual Artist Fellowship, Somerville Arts Council, Somerville, MA
2000 Paul Caine Memorial Award, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
1999 Ellen Battell Stoeckel Award, Yale Summer School of Art, Norfolk, CT
1999 Remis Grant, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

Publications

2024 Chenoa Baker, “Five Artists for Apocalyptic Times,” Artscope Magazine, January/February 2024

Artist Talks

2023 Artist Talk, “Blue: Forms of Portraiture,” Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge MA, November 28.