Rebecca Beachy is a Chicago-based artist, writer and educator whose practice explores the complex relationships we have with the natural world. Grounded in interests as wide-ranging as sculpture, ecology, history, the animistic qualities of homes and architectural spaces, and the materiality of plants and animals, Beachy’s work often reflects upon the ethics and the interplay of tangible material presence related to the potency of language and symbolic forms. For many years her site-sensitive sculptural installations have involved responding to exhibition spaces with the use of collected and transformed materials that address material use and extraction, life-cycles of birth, death, preservation and decomposition, and difficulties in the way human beings relate to nature. Beachy holds an MA in Art History and an MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She has practiced taxidermy both independently and at Chicago's Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Beachy’s work has been exhibited throughout Chicago, the United States, and Germany, with support from 3Arts, 6018North, and Chicago Sister Cities International (Hamburg, Germany), among others. She has taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago and currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.