Bean Gilsdorf creates work that examines the relationship between historical narratives and iconography, and the ways in which representations influence our perception of cultural values.

Her projects have been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, and the American Textile History Museum, as well as exhibition spaces in Poland, England, Italy, China, and South Africa. Gilsdorf’s work is in the permanent collections of the Berkeley Art Museum, Kala Art Institute, and the International Quilt Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Gilsdorf is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Andy Warhol Foundation Grant (2020), two Fulbright Fellowships to Poland (2015–2016 and 2016–2017), a Graduate Fellowship at Headlands Center for the Arts (2011–2012), and a Graduate Full Merit Scholarship to California College of the Arts (2009). She has also been in residence at 18th Street Arts Center and Banff Centre, among others. Gilsdorf holds a BA in Literature from Simon’s Rock at Bard College and an MFA in Fine Arts from California College of the Arts. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.