Deborah Beck

Born Sydney, Australia

Lives & Works Sydney (Eora)

Deborah Beck is an artist, historian and author. She has held 18 solo exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne and participated in numerous group exhibitions throughout Australia. Beck has been a finalist in many significant awards, including the Dobell Prize for drawing (2012), the Sulman Prize (2000), the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2012) and the Blake Prize (2003).

She studied at the National Art School in the 1970s and received a Master of Arts (history) at the University of Sydney in 2010. Beck has taught in art schools in Sydney for over thirty years and is currently Collections Manager, Archivist and Historian at the National Art School. She has co-curated six major exhibitions in the NAS Gallery, including the site wide exhibition Captivate in 2022, celebrating two centuries of Darlinghurst Gaol and the National Art School. She also wrote the accompanying publication Captivate which received a highly commended award at the National Trust Heritage Awards in 2023. Her other books include Hope in Hell, Rayner Hoff: the life of a sculptor and Set in Stone, which won a NSW Premier’s History Award in 2012.

Deborah Beck was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for Service to the Arts in January 2023, and is currently the Ross Steele AM Fellow at the State Library of NSW.