Education

BA CSUN 2010
MFA CSULA 2014

Bio and Affiliation

Collin Stafford is ½ of Beck+Col, a Los Angeles artist duo who have been working exclusively in collaboration since 2014. Through costume-based performance and video, they build alternate universes that are populated by monsters, spawning a counter-mythology and queering of existing norms. Their work is not human-centered. Instead, it privileges the monster, challenging what is/is not human. The aggressive colors, ornate monsters, and corresponding sets create a hyperreal setting of excess that fosters an overwhelming weirdness.

Their work manifests the ambient violence of capitalism to give abstract concepts of oppression form that can be physically engaged with. They question individualism, both in practice and in content. Inherently collaborative, their practice also features other artists and performers working together to create large works. They highlight the effects of atomization and, in contrast, the power of community. Their performances create a communal event, countering the alienation of capitalism. The representation of violence provokes an embodied response in the viewer, prompting a shared experience of becoming monsters themselves. The playfulness of their monsters and the lightness of the materials contrast the brutality and gore of the performances.

Collin Stafford project
Collin Stafford project
Collin Stafford project
Collin Stafford project
Collin Stafford project
Collin Stafford project

Awards and Honors

Beck+Col has performed at numerous venues, including the Hammer Museum, REDCAT, and JOAN Los Angeles. They have had multiple solo exhibitions at Human Resources, and their work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Royal College of Music in Sweden, Colección AMALITA in Buenos Aires, and at Biquini WAX EPS in Mexico City. Beck+Col has received multiple FCA grants and was nominated for a Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist grant in 2019. They have been invited to host art education workshops and lectures with the Hammer Museum, the Craft Contemporary Museum, the 18th Street Art Center, and the City of Santa Monica.

In the Spring of 2020, Beck+Col were the artists in residence for the San Diego International Airport Performing Arts Residency and represented LACE at the Art Los Angeles Contemporary fair. Cohosts of ART TALK Talk talk, created while Beck+Col were in residency at UNLV in 2021. B+C was one of LAPP's Research and Development artists in Residence in 2022. In 2023 they will have solo shows at Woodbury University, The Art Room and Angels Gate Cultural Center.

Professional Accomplishments and Exhibitions

Solo

2023         Red Night, The Art Room, Los Angeles, CA
                 Part Two! A shadow out of the light, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA
                 Part One! a shadow out of the dark Nan Rae Gallery at Woodbury University, Los Angeles
2021         The Revolting Lumpen! lumpen station, Adams Square Gas Station, Glendale, CA
2020         The Revolting Lumpen! a smaller classical opera, presented by LACE at ALAC, Los Angeles
2019         The Revolting Lumpen! a classical opera reboot, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles
                 The Revolting Lumpen! a classical opera, D300 CalArts, Valencia, CA
2018         The Monstern! Live, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles
2017         Monster Romp! Live, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles
                 The Monstern! Live, D301 CalArts, Valencia, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions+ Performances

2023        Cantadora Shamana de Cabaret, Collaboration with Carmina Escobar, LACE, Los Angeles
                Part Two! a shadow out of the light, PAA Fringe Benefit, Art Center, Pasadena, CA

2022        Triad Revolutions to Gurdjieff, Tertium Organum, Center for Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles
                REDCAT Gala, REDCAT, Los Angeles

2021        Bend, ESMOA, El Segundo Museum of Art, El Segundo, CA
                Horror Without End! doubling portals, Geffen Playhouse Lobby, Los Angeles
                Horror Without End! doubling, Performance at Torrance Art Museum
                Horror Without End! parasitic symbiosis, Kleur Bekennen at PLAY room, Zaandam, Netherlands
                Virtual Exhibition at Coastline College, Newport, CA

2020        Malignant Accumulation, S.O.S fundraiser to get out the vote, Track16, Los Angeles, CA
                Horror Without End! trespass, CalArts Halloween Alumni showcase
                Horror Without End! Parasitic Symbiosis, Operational Statements booth, OPAF, Los Angeles
                Monstern Saloon, Dramas de Otro Mundo, Colección AMALITA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2019         The Revolting Lumpen! a procession, COAST, Santa Monica, CA
                 Spectre of Lost Futures! an undead aria, Haunts, JOAN Gallery, Los Angeles
                 Lumpy Song, Elliot Reed Brunch Construct: Shifting Variable Options Welcome, 123
                    Astronaut Gallery, Los Angeles
                 Lumpy Song, 18th St Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA
                 Monstern Saloon, Video in Site: The Action Film, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
                 Lumpy Scream, Project Scream (link), a curatorial sound project by Carmina Escobar, Fy 
                     and Tom Leeser

2018        Passively Rotting Mass, Super Flexible, graduating MFA group show, CalArts
                Runaway Puppet!, Hallow's Eve Artists Maze, Bob Baker Marionette Theater, Los Angeles
                Pink Lumphoma, Fundraiser for Swing Left, Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles
                Rainbow Face! on Vacation, Desert Daze Music+Art Festival, Lake Perris, CA
                Monstern Saloon, Videohouse 3, Human Resources LA, Los Angeles; Deslave, Tijuana, Mexico
                     and Biquini WAX EPS, Mexico City, Mexico
                Nah Oblivion (collaboration with Elliot Reed), Touch Me Cut Me Feel Me Volume II, Wild
                      Embeddings, Brooklyn, NY​

2017        Monstar Smash, Desert Daze Music+Art Festival, Joshua Tree, CA
                Rainbow Face!, Coast Festival, Santa Monica, CA
                Monster Mass, Third Shift Festival, St. John, NB, Canada
                Monstar, Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden
                MonsterRock, Tote Your Float, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
                Monster Romp Live!, In Real Life: Studio, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Residencies

2022        Los Angeles Performance Practice Research & Development Residency        
2021        ART TALK Talk talk, UNLV Virtual Artist in Residence, Las Vegas, NV
2020        Davyd Whaley Foundation Desert House Residency Grant, Joshua Tree, CA
                The Revolting Lumpen! a series, San Diego International Airport Performing Arts
                    Residency, San Diego, CA​
2017        Rainbow Face! on Vacation, Annenberg Community Beach House, Santa Monica, CA

Publications

Press, Publications + Grants

2023         "10 Art Shows to See in LA This June" Hyperallergic
                 "Meet The Mannerist Monsters of Beck+Col" LAWEEKLY
2022         "Beck+Col Bathe Their Critique of Capital in Buckets of Blood" Hyperallergic
2021         SCVTV interview and feature for their Finding Art series
2020         Rema Hort Emerging Artist Grant Nominee
                 Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant
2019         Haunts, CalArts MFA 2019 Graduate Catalog
                 CalArts Interdisciplinary Grant
                 The Monstern!, Emergency Index, Vol. 8
​2018         Interview for Third Shift Catalogue
​2017         Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant
                 Rainbow Face Live!, Emergency Index, Vol. 6

Clients and Employment History

2021-Present, Part-time Faculty, Otis College of Art and Design 
2019-Present, Adjunct Instructor, Victor Valley College