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Jennifer Bechak

Jennifer_Bechak

Jennifer Bechak is a multidisciplinary artist exploring where natural and unnatural worlds collide. As an artist and nature devotee, she is interested in how synthetic as well as natural environments are formed, what ignites the interest in molding a replication or replacement of them, and the interaction of the real and the phantasmagoric.

For The Myth of Persephone, Bechak brings these interests into artworks that combine imagery from the natural world with manufactured structures and materials. Utilizing a wide variety of materials, from glass to repurposed polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) to slate, she explores and touches on the environment that surrounds us. Looking into etiological, cosmogonic, and eschatological myths, Bechak considers how stories create a context for the world we live and thrive in. Through myth and dreams, imaginative stories can shape what is understood as reality. Ingenuity ignites theory, creating new possibilities in science, technology, and medicine. Recognizing the connection between the conscious and subconscious mind and traversing the two, Bechak uses meditation to tune out diversions and establish the groundwork for new concepts. She integrates these concepts into her artwork, reflecting upon myths and taking a deep lunge into what is viewed as reality.

Bechak studied at the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Zagreb, earned her BFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and earned her MA and MFA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has exhibited in Pittsburgh at the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art (CMU), Carnegie Museum of Art, SPACE, Fe and Future Tenant galleries, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, the Pittsburgh Visionary Arts Festival, Three Rivers Arts Festival, and internationally at Močvara in Croatia.

She has taught a range of studio art classes at various universities, jumped into the film industry 15+ years ago, and currently works as a Production Designer on independent films. She is presently exploring glass as a teaching assistant at the Pittsburgh Glass Center and learning about the amazing world of underground networks by hiking around the woods as a member of the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club.

portfolio.jpg View Jennifer Bechak's artwork in the 2026 exhibition, The Myth of Persephone.

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