PRESS RELEASE | Joan Becker: Pursue
Exhibition Dates: January 17 – February 15, 2025
Gallery Hours: Fri & Sat, 11 am – 4 pm, or by appointment
Location: Gross McCleaf Gallery, 123 Leverington Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19127, (215-665-8138)
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present Pursue, a solo exhibition of new watercolors by Joan Becker. The show features her signature, large-scale botanical paintings and a collection of intimate portraits, each showcasing Becker’s mastery of detail and her ability to evoke both the vitality of nature and the complexity of human character.
Becker’s botanicals are composed without preparatory sketches as she works directly from live plants. Each painting grows organically across the paper, layer by layer, capturing the fleeting beauty of flowers and foliage while creating densely layered compositions. Her approach balances careful observation with an intuitive sense of design, allowing the plants to feel both precise and alive, thriving in an imagined yet naturalistic environment.
This same attentiveness extends to Becker’s portraits, which reflect a dynamic engagement with her human subjects. “There is a special relationship created between the model and the painter,” she notes. “Life stories and ideas are shared, which is a great privilege.” Whether painting a friend, acquaintance, or model, Becker brings each sitter to life through vivid color and thoughtful composition. These portraits carry both a sense of humor and humanity, sensitively developed in moments of connection exchanged in her studio.
Together, the botanicals and portraits in Pursue invite viewers to consider the nuanced relationships between observation, imagination, and connection. Becker describes this pursuit as “the search for meaning,” where the disciplines of painting and life intertwine to create something simultaneously personal and universal.
From an early age, Joan Becker was exposed to a love of art and nature. Her father, also a painter, introduced her to drawing tools and observational figure drawing. While in high school, Becker modeled for life classes and worked as a draftswoman for the state of New York. At the same time, her home in upstate New York afforded her the opportunity to explore the beauty of the open fields and woods. These experiences, along with many museum visits, paved her way to Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia.
After graduation, Becker joined the Fairmount Park Commission where she oversaw the environmental centers - an array of historic houses, and special facilities such as the Fairmount Water Works and Japanese House and Garden. Her interest in environmental concerns led her to a career in this field with Weston Technologies. She enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1997 and completed her Certificate in 2003. In recent years, Becker taught advanced painting at Main Line Art Center for more than a decade and has shown with Gross McCleaf Gallery for over twelve years. This is Becker’s sixth solo show with the gallery.