Karen Allen

July 9 - August 24, 2024

RECEPTION

Spirit and body together
These Paintings seesaw opposites
Paradoxes
A body found in paint
Or hidden in plastic mesh
A spirit that speaks out of paper or canvas
Or bits of cloth or ephemera
(Isn’t it all ephemera?)

Those stories that lodged in my head were received and had to be painted out

A moment between birth and death
A bit of poison in sweet dreams,
A bit of a sweet dream in the poisoned cup

Here are a few of the ones
that came out in the studio
Artifacts of reception and release.

—Karen Allen

About Karen Allen

Karen Allen creates multimedia paintings and objects exploring poetic visions. Her earliest inspirations were the rolling hills and fields of upstate NY where she grew up and the books and art history she surrounded herself with. Currently, she is exploring how poetry and writing intersect in her process and intentions with the mid-sized to smaller paintings she creates. She sees her work as something personal and effable which arises from her intuition and lived experience. Her BFA in painting was earned with an art competitive scholarship at Syracuse University in 1976. Coming to the NYC area afterward Allen worked in the creative departments of advertising agencies and publishing houses. She designed art curriculums for private schools and developed art workshops for public institutions. In 2019 she returned full-time to her artistic practice by conceptualizing and executing a public 12 ft x 60 ft mural in Peekskill NY. She completed two graphic books in a collaborative project designed by artist-curator Carla Rae Johnson. During the pandemic, several poetry writing workshops at the Hudson Valley Writers Center introduced her to the similarities between writing and painting, a broad theme currently energizing and underlying her work. Allen has been represented in numerous juried exhibits and invitationals. She is a Bethany Arts Community artist fellow, having been awarded a residency in 2020. She is currently preparing for a solo show in September at BAU Gallery in Beacon, New York. Her work is in private collections throughout the United States and Europe. She maintains her studio in Verplanck, NY.