McClain Gallery is pleased to present Oddities and Other Opinions featuring drawings, collages, and objects by Karin Broker. For her first solo exhibition since 2006, Broker has ripped apart needlepoints, nailed metal onto wood, wired shiny jewels onto objects and drawn lush, dramatically rendered flowers inspired by the romance of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Broker revealed that this body of work emerged from processing emotions surrounding the turbulent nature of friendships, current events, sexual relationships and political views. Although the artwork in Oddities and Other Opinions is visually diverse, the thread throughout remains the same: weaving femininity, beauty, and optimism with severity, tragedy and aging.
Karin Broker was formerly the Department of Visual Arts Chair for Rice University and has been teaching at Rice since 1980. Broker, originally from Pennsylvania, moved to Houston shortly after earning her MFA from the University of Wisconsin and has been living and working in Houston for the past 30 years. Her artwork is in public collections nationwide including Brooklyn Museum of Art, McNay Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York Public Library, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Blanton Museum of Art and many others.