PUTNEY — The NXT Gallery presents an art exhibit by Karen Becker, titled “Bearing Witness, Part 2,” from Sunday, May 21, to Aug. 13, 2023 at the NXT Gallery, 15 Kimball Hill. The opening reception for the exhibit will be held on May 21 from 3 to 5 pm.
The majority of the exhibition is devoted to Becker's love of nature and the threat of the climate crisis. The animals and trees represented all bear witness to the devastation that is unfolding due to industrialization and war.
The exhibit is dedicated to Becker's parents, Marianne and George Becker, for their lifelong courage, generosity, kindness, and devotion to the arts in southern Vermont. Her parents instilled in her a deep appreciation of nature and beauty and the courage to express her inner world. Becker states they fully and lovingly supported her art.
This is a retrospective of artworks made during the past 40 years. In addition to images of animals, the exhibit includes “The Sphere Series,” paintings and drawings based in fantasy that have been in her private collection, as well as imaginary canyons and Becker's favorite maple, which inspired her paintings for decades. She uses many media, including watercolors, pastels, charcoal, and gouache.
Becker has exhibited her artwork in New York City, Boston, Maine, and Vermont. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Pratt Institute.
Her journey from Brooklyn to Brattleboro has been varied and has included creating on-air graphics and photography for public television in New York City, designing typography layouts on Madison Avenue, and working for Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco.
In Vermont, Becker became part of the Vermont Arts Council's Artists-in-Education Program. For 25 years, she led more than 150 mural-painting workshops for children and adults.
She was, for a time, a professional wedding photographer, and was voted “Best Local Wedding Photographer.”
To see more of Becker's artwork, contact her at [email protected]. This exhibit runs concurrently with a show of her work at the West Village Meeting House, in West Brattleboro, titled “Bearing Witness, Part 1,” on view from Sunday, May 14, to June 30.