His artworks often derive from in-depth research into narratives from the fields of architecture, design and popular culture and are characterized by his usage of diverse media, including installation, photography, video, writing, sculpture, and drawing.
Since 2004, he has worked as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna[1] where he teaches courses on exhibition and display issues as well as artistic and design methodology.
[2] Beck’s artworks range from complex, mixed-media installations to subtle architectural interventions, and often explore the role of display in exhibition frameworks.
These include over two dozen shows for the International Center of Photography in New York between 2001 and 2004; X-Screen: Film Installations and Actions of the 1960s and 1970s (2003) and Changing Channels: Art and Television 1963–1987 (2010)[8] for Mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna; Projekt Migration (2005) at Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Journeys: How Travelling Fruit, Ideas and Buildings Rearrange Our Environment (2010)[9] at Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, and Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take (2014)[10] at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
Beck combined the narrative of this event with his research on the predecessor of today’s navigation systems, the Aspen Movie Map, and developed an exhibition consisting of videos, photography, prints, sculpture, and artifacts.
Art historian Branden W. Joseph wrote: “The question ‘Is there a form to shared togetherness?’ guided Beck’s investigation into both the communes of the 1960s... and the disco of the ’70s and early ’80s, two cultural poles most often perceived as in stark opposition to each other.
)”[17] In 2014, Beck was commissioned to develop a project to go along with the re-branding, initiated by then-director James Voorhies, of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University.
Beck has held solo and collaborative exhibitions at Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin (2000, with Julie Ault); Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2003); Secession, Vienna (2006, with Julie Ault); Casco, Utrecht (2007); Gasworks, London (2008); Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at Columbia University, New York (2009); Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal (2012); Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland (2013); Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (2017); The Kitchen, New York (2017); Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway (2018); Frac Lorraine, Metz, France (2018); and 47 Canal, New York (2012, 2015, and 2018).
In April 2020, together with Julie Ault, Scott Cameron Weaver, and James Benning, Beck co-curated and produced the online exhibition Down the Rabbit Hole: JB in JT for O-Townhouse.