Work by former Beaumont resident Teresa Baker is included in the Whitney Biennial 2026.
Photo by Andy Coughlan
Teresa Baker is shown in a portrait.
Photo courtesy of Teresa Baker
An installation photo of Teresa Baker’s work in the Whitney Biennial.
Photo courtesy of Teresa Baker
NEW YORK — When Teresa Baker moved to Beaumont in 2014, she was already an established artist with a growing reputation.
After moving to the area, the hometown of her soon-to-be husband Michael Mason, she settled into the creative scene, working and hosting exhibits at her studio on Orleans Street.
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Now she is showing on one of biggest arts stages as part of the 82nd edition of the Whitney Biennial in New York through Aug. 23.
The North Dakota native said in a phone interview that curators from the Whitney Museum of American Art spend two years traveling the country visiting hundreds of artists’ studios to make their selections.
“I went to undergrad in New York City, so truly this has been kind of a dream to be in the Whitney Biennial since my early 20s,” she said. “As a younger person, I used to go and learn about artists that way, and it’s always a very, very exciting thing to witness.
“I was just completely thrilled to be a part of it, to be invited. They came for a visit at some point, and then you don’t really hear it, so you’ve no idea until later.”
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This year’s exhibition highlights the work of 56 artists. The museum’s website states that it, “offers a space for contemplating the shifting currents of art in the United States, asking not only what is being made but also what it means to name something ‘American’ at all.”
While Baker was in Beaumont — where she had solo shows at The Art Studio, Inc., as well as a first museum exhibition at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas — a visit to the hardware store led her to discover something that took her signature abstract textile works to a higher level — Astroturf.
“Anytime I give lectures or talks, I always focus on sort of Beaumont’s influence in many ways, of just being in that place,” she said. “It was really about being there, and is the reason I work with Astroturf. I often wonder, honestly, had I not gone, would I be working on Astroturf? I really don’t know. It came at a certain point in my practice where I was still searching for my canvas.”
Moving to Texas from California, where she had lived prior, changed the way she looked at things and opened her up to different possibilities, she said. In a big city one can feel like it’s the center of the universe, with large, specialized art stores offering infinite possibilities. But she found her direction at the hardware store.
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“Many artists love going to a hardware store, it’s always exciting,” she said. “But I had to really lean into what was around me and learned that there was a real adventure in that, and sort of continue to be curious and interested in what resources I had locally.
“I think Beaumont was a reminder of that, and Beaumont is really, you know, forever in the story of my practice, because that’s where I started working with Astroturf.”
Baker was struck by the different variety of Astroturf available.
“Where I was coming from in California, I don’t even think they carry the type of a strip I found in Beaumont,” she said. “It is a little bit specific to the place, because I know some of that marine blue is used for bottom of boats, and so it is a little more specific to Southeast Texas in that way, and the culture, and what these materials are used for.”
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Seeing Baker’s works at the Biennial, one is taken by the scale. They are perfect in the large space and one can lose oneself in the expanse.
In an interview for her show at The Art Studio in 2017, Baker said landscape, such as in the Romanticism of Casper David Friedrick, is important in her life and work, as well as her Native-American heritage.
“I was raised in a culture where objects have meaning, they hold a lot of weight,” she said in 2017. “Being raised with that reverence for materiality, that definitely comes into play in the concepts for me while I’m working.”
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Baker’s time in Southeast Texas may have been relatively short, but Beaumont had a lasting effect on her career. And those who knew her then will not be surprised at her growing success.
For more, visit whitney.org.