Maegan Beck (she/they) is an art writer and independent researcher based in Tiohtià:ke / Montréal.

About

My work begins in the body——in the slow, deliberate practice of attending to what art does before it becomes legible as idea. I write across contemporary art, queer visual culture, and archival practice, drawn to the places where grief and care take form: the living archive, the material trace, the object that holds what institutions cannot.

I am interested in what falls out of view at speed——and what becomes visible only when we slow down enough to receive it. My writing moves between close formal analysis and theoretical frameworks drawn from queer theory, phenomenology, and new materialism, but my commitment is always to attention: what it costs, what it makes possible, and ultimately, what it refuses.

Formal Education

Master of Art History Concordia University
2024 Concordia University
Bachelor of Fine Arts University of Ottawa
2019 University of Ottawa

Awards

Faculty of Fine Arts Graduate Fellowship Concordia University
2019–2021 Concordia University
Out-of-Province Award Concordia University
2019–2021 Concordia University
Merit Scholarship of the Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa
2018 + 2019 University of Ottawa

Residencies

Tender Prospects Artist + Writing Residency
April 2026 Lisbon, Portugal

Editorial + Curatorial

Peer Reviewer, "Flux" tba: Journal of Art, Media, and Visual Culture Western University
2025 Western University
Peer Reviewer, "Reworlding" tba: Journal of Art, Media, and Visual Culture Western University
2021 Western University
Curatorial Text, "Empathy/Empathie" AHGSA's 15th Annual Graduate Conference Concordia University
2021 Concordia University

Teaching + Guest Lectures

Guest Lecturer (Dr. Braden Lee Scott) FAAH 3250: Queer Theory University of Manitoba
2025 University of Manitoba
Teaching Assistant (Professor Karen Herland) FASS392-AA: Queer Theory Concordia University
2022 Concordia University
Teaching Assistant (Dr. Reilley Bishop-Stall) ARTH384: Theories of Representation: Art & Activism in the Streets and Online Concordia University
2021 Concordia University
Teaching Assistant (Professor Karen Herland) FFAR291/INTE398: HIV/AIDS: An Interdisciplinary Introduction Concordia University
2021 Concordia University
Teaching Assistant (Dr. Philippe Guillaume) ARTH 267: Aspects of the History of Photography Concordia University
2019 Concordia University

Conferences

"Alternatives and the Futurity of Empathy" AHGSA's 15th Annual Art History Graduate Conference Concordia University
2021 Concordia University
"Precarious Possibilities: NYC's Queer Piers" 44th Annual Graduate Symposium University of British Columbia
2021 University of British Columbia

Selected Writing

Soft Monuments: Chantal Khoury and the Unhardening of History BlackFlash Magazine
2026 ↗︎ (forthcoming)
The Score No One Else Can Perform: Nicole Ji Soo Kim and the Notation of Mourning ESPACE art actuel
2026 ↗︎ (forthcoming)
Shimmer: Anthony McCall and the Opacity of Light ESPACE art actuel
In the Middle Distance: Artist Interview with Ayla Dmyterko BlackFlash Magazine
Computational Geology: Fibre, Metal, and the Memory of Stone ESPACE art actuel
Mending Memory: A Fabric of Absence Needlebound Vol. II