BIO
Becca Van K (b. 1991) is a mixed-media fiber artist based in New York’s Catskill Mountains. She has exhibited widely in the Hudson Valley & Capital Regions, and firmly believes in art as a conduit for community support/engagement. She is a 2022 & 2021 recipient of a NYSCA Decentralization Grant through CREATE County Council on the Arts and a 2020 recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts “Keep NYS Creating” Grant. She has recently participated in exhibitions at the Hancock Shaker Museum (Pittsfield, MA), Holding Space (Kingston, NY), and Ladies Room (Los Angeles, CA). Torn between city nightlife and the woods of the Catskills, she’d only leave New York if there were techno clubs in the desert. She has climbed all 35 of the tallest peaks in the Catskills and doesn’t know what to do next. She is also the creator of ZAPWARE, a fashion-forward line of outerwear for bug protection.

ARTIST STATEMENT
Fiber and the woods are forever interlinked intrinsically for me through historical narratives, and I see myself in a lineage of mountain-dwelling people (primarily women) whose work came from the earth of soft green mountains. Having learned handcraft techniques from my mother at an early age, I aim to carry this maternal legacy while envisioning it in new ways. My practice currently centers the slightly unconventional folk art mediums of needlepoint wall art and macrame chair weaving. There is an element of kitsch and craft in these mediums that generally are not viewed as “high art,” which I wholeheartedly embrace. I refurbish chairs with nylon paracord using a crochet/weaving hybrid macrame. Many of my paracord chairs are reclaimed frames from the side of the road or the trash. I make abstract needlepoint landscapes that translate my reverence for the natural world into abstracted postcard-like studies. By reducing elements of the photographs to basic shapes in humorous ways, I aim to create a more contemporary version of the needlepoint landscape. I continue to enrich my knowledge of craft, and am constantly scheming ways to make craft and art that is in deep connection with a craft from the past while using materials and aesthetics that speak to a contemporary audience.