Have you met…Karen Schifano?

Big Top, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 56 x 72 inches

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to.

The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Karen Schifano.

Karen Schifano Bio, 2013

Karen Schifano, a painter based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is intrigued by the mind’s ability to recognize, conceptualize and manifest spatial constructs simply through the use of shape, edge and color. Recent inspiration derives from theater stages, mouths, product labels, doorways and windows; framed openings that can also be read as object or symbol, abstract shape and metaphor.

She received a BA in Art History from Swarthmore College, an MFA from Hunter College, and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Recent selected exhibition venues include Sydney Non-Objective Contemporary Art Projects (Australia), ParisConcret (Paris), and Allegra LaViola, McKenzie Gallery, and Parallel Art Space in New York. Current and upcoming shows include “Punchline”, curated by Kevin Daly at the Institute Library in New Haven, and “Capture the Rapture”, curated by Rory Devine at CB1 Gallery in LA.

Gangplank, 2009, oil on canvas, 84 x 40 inches

Karen Schifano:  Artist’s Statement

“Painting is thought melded to feeling. Geometrically structured painting aims for the essentials of this thought/feeling amalgam. It is determined to get to the bottom of it all, searching for the unvarnished truth, for clarity and proportion. It is bent on defining conditions, deducing properties, getting the facts straight while also opening up to all the mysterious glory of what and how we experience and understand our lives.

My work often starts with what I see around me in my travels (windows, doors, buildings) but then is transformed into a structured object pared down to its bare bones. Color creates light, filling the spaces defined by painted lines or the edges of the canvas. These colored surfaces can be read as objects on a white wall and also as spaces through that wall. There are sometimes hints of a metaphoric dimension to these images (created by the use of perspective) which add a suggestion of narrative and evocative mood. I hope that through the tension between the metaphorical and the notational, an emotional response is triggered, opening the door to imaginative dreaming and maybe even to transcendence.”

Playground, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 36 inches

 

Other material relating to Karen Schifano.

Artist website: karenschifano.com

MoMa P.S.1 Studio Visit: Karen Schifano

Joanne Mattera Art Blog: Karen Schifano

Geoform: Karen Schifano

Two Coats Of Paint: Karen Schifano

ArtSlant: Karen Schifano

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