Based around an investigation of the unique characteristics of small-town life, Justin Colt Beckman’s work explores and presents ideas surrounding the urban/rural dichotomy and its associated stereotypes. Essentially a city boy with country boy tendencies, he uses photo-based works, film/video, sculpture, installation, and new-media to engage in rural activities vicariously through his art-making.Beckman received a BFA from Art Center College of design in 1998 and an MFA in sculpture from Central Washington University in 2008. He enjoys a town-and-country lifestyle with a studio in the small, unincorporated town of Thorp, WA and a home in nearby Ellensburg with his wife Monica and their son Porter, and is also a founding member of PUNCH Gallery, an artist-run space in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle.Beckman has exhibited work both locally and nationally including Art Share in Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Art in Ft. Lauderdale, FL; G.A.S.P. in Boston, MA; Tacoma Art Museum’s 8th Northwest Biennial; The Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts; and a solo exhibition at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, NY.