Becca Van K

December 1, 2021 - January 3 , 2022

Becca Van K wraps up the 2021 season with “Some Soft Thoughts” - a large grouping of woven objects including wooden chairs, folding chairs, wall hangings, and much more.  These functioning furniture pieces are created with bright neon colored yarns, beads, and fake fur, creating the atmosphere of a late 90’s techno club VIP room heavily which is referencing the Memphis interior design style.

“Some Soft Thoughts” provided Van K the opportunity to expand her ongoing body of work where she experiments with new techniques, recycled materials and objects and asks us to reconsider what is defined as “furniture” and what is labeled as “art.”  Van K says, “My artistic spirit is committed to tenderness, reverence, generosity, and humor. I draw inspiration from the natural world, 80s/90s graphics and nostalgia, house/techno music, and the concept of comfort. I weave a collective blanket of meditation in the repetitive acts of handcraft, walking, and listening to techno. I enter a nurturing and otherwise inaccessible headspace when I engage in these repetitive acts, which translates to works that are infused with care and personality. 

“I think of myself as an interdisciplinary collage artist. I take material elements from unconventional sources and create something entirely new. Consistently vacillating between the realm of craft and fine art, my practice utilizes needlepoint, latch hook rug making, and macrame. These largely overlooked techniques are a map of my self-taught and mother-taught experiences. I take pride in the time-consuming nature of this work, and aim to create pieces that subvert conventional notions about the functions of handcraft. 

“The joy of my viewers is at the center of my practice.”

Becca Van K 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 has recently participated in exhibitions at: The Yard: City Hall Park (New York, NY), Columbia College (Columbia, MO), and ArtPort Kingston (Kingston, NY). She is a recipient of a 2021 NYSCA Community Arts Grant through CREATE Council on the Arts and a 2020 New York Foundation for the Arts “Keep NYS Creating” Grant.  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.