Alexandra Becker Black

Alexandra Becker-Black has been obsessed with the human form since childhood. One of her earliest memories is that of her drawing a woman’s face. From there, she became interested in the figure. But her artistic calling was not revealed to her in quite that straight-forward a manner as that.

At the beginning, her work was more about the fashion figure where subtle movements, emotions and essence were cloaked beneath layers of clothing and accessories. Then, through her study of yoga, she became interested in anatomy, musculature, and their beauty when in motion.

So she stripped away the camouflage, decorations and colors,and started working with the nude figure in motion, in graphite or in neutral watercolors. Using a camera, live models, lights and a blank white background, she captures those movement that come and go in the blink of an eye, that can imply emotions and actions that statically posed models cannot.

Once recorded, she works with the still images but continues to purge from the already naked form, choosing only what she needs and adding only what is absolutely necessary. You see muscles tense and strain against gravity; you see figures in serene repose; you see energy suddenly released when a small flock of birds fly out of a woman’s opened hands. All of this is conjured up in front of your eyes even as a torso fades to gray or a leg disappears, creating work that is ethereal and luminously beautiful, haunting, evocative and complex.

Although ‘simple’ appears again and again in Becker-Black’s own description of her work, there is truly nothing simple in her work or her method. As anyone who has tried to simplify their lives can attest, it is a difficult and complex process to come to an understanding of what we truly need – less is more.  Becker-Black received her BFA, from the Rhode Island School of Design.