Karin Broker (b. 1950, Penn, Pennsylvania) is best known for her large drawings of Conte Crayon on formica panels, but she is also a master printmaker and sculptor. Whether she is wiring objects with rhinestone, hammering metal onto wood, welding steel into 2D drawings or making prints, her objects are conversations with melancholia regarding family, religion, gender inequality and violence towards women, but they also chronicle acts of courage and brilliance achieved by her “tribe.” The final works also revel in optimism and fairness with a heavy dose of beauty.
Born in Pennsylvania, Karin Broker received a BFA from the University of Iowa and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She studied printmaking under Stanley W. Hayter at the Atelier 17 in Paris. She was professor of printmaking and drawing at Rice University from 1980–2021. In 1994, Broker was the Texas Artist of the Year and was awarded two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. As a master printer, Broker has worked with a number of artists, including Alice Neel, Pat Steir, Garo Antreasian, and Ed Ruscha. Her artwork is in public collections nationwide including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; New York Public Library, New York, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas; and many others.