Artist Bio
Becky Borlan’s first sculptures were made in her childhood backyard in Florida. Fashioning forts from tree limbs and old furniture scavenged from the woods beside her house. Growing up, she explored pottery, photography, theater, film, and painting before returning to sculpture in college. Her installations are playful, vibrant, and whimsical, employing an array of materials but especially those that bend light and reflect color.
Becky has been working in public art since 2009, first as studio manager for international artist Janet Echelman, creating city-scaled suspended installations, then as a project manager for DC artist Steven Weitzman, integrating aesthetic enhancements into transportation infrastructure. These foundational experiences led her to pursue her own artistic vision in the public realm: creating sculptures from color and light that spark reverence and wonder.
She has created permanent works for DC Public Schools, the Park School of Baltimore, and the City of Asheville, NC. She has recently completed her first piece using glass for Silver Spring MD, her first kinetic sculpture in Huntington, WV, and was recently awarded her largest commission to date in Hillsboro, OR.
Becky lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband and daughter.
BFA, Fine Arts, New College of Florida
Artist Statement
My public sculptures act as visual puzzles that invite the viewer to pause, explore and play. The tension between order and chaos, presented in kaleidoscopic color pull the viewer into a fully saturated whimsical realm. Drawing from a variety of artistic references like stained glass, color theory, and geometric abstractionism, my artworks posit that play has the power to tap into joy that transforms our own lives and others. Constructing with a range of materials, simple modular forms are pieced together to create complex visual phenomena that can be appreciated by young and old.
Press
Interview with Washington City Paper
For me public art is about accessibility. It’s creating an artwork where a lot of people can see it. It’s not rarified. I feel like galleries can be kind of intimidating spaces sometimes, so I like the idea of public art existing in the world where people can encounter it unexpectedly and have an experience that is just outside of their norm.
Art reveals a creative, historical side to Foggy Bottom neighborhood, Washington Post
Becky Borlan’s “Bricks” reflects the history of masonry in Foggy Bottom. Bold and colorful, the piece depicts a brick wall, albeit one made entirely of transparent acrylic.
(e)merge art fair at the Capitol Skyline Hotel, Washington Post
The work — called “Too Much Is Never Enough,” after the title of Lapidus’s autobiography — is meant to be fun, not heavy, Borlan says. “I think [Lapidus] really, really believed that phrase,” she says. “He gilded the lily, and then he added another bouquet.”
My technique is more fluid. Depending on the project, I’m either responding to a particular site or material, sometimes both. So I try to let that guide the creative process. With public art, there are usually certain constraints inherent to the situation, and I actually enjoy figuring out how to work within them because it keeps me on my toes. It forces me to look beyond the obvious answers.