Installation of Karen Barbour paintings in Cannonball Run III at Zeitgeist, 2014
"I paint figuratively and abstractly, sometimes combining the two - I work in gouache and acrylic and also oil on wood and canvas.
These are psychological interpretations of our perceptions of our bodies, possessions and place in the world.
Woman with No Private Parts, 2014, Karen Barbour
Fragmented figures feeling judged. Avoiding by dreaming about others - forms that humans struggle to maintain - whether their bodies or their gardens or their hair.
Society always evaluating people by their body shapes - the clothing that shapes us - and protects us and presents an identity - same with our cars and houses etc.
Undergarments that transform the human body - push up bras, falsies, darts, corsets, spanks.
Transforming the body with electrolysis, liposuction, implants, chin implants.
Conversations overheard and then illustrated. Mental illness, gossip, imaginings, trying to be perfect, anxiety, boredom, doubts, and everlasting dissatisfaction. Part imagination, part memory, part drawn from life."
Works featured in Cannonball Run III:
Karen Barbour lives in California. She got her MFA in film from the San Francisco Art Institute and has shown all over the world including at Jack Hanley in New York and The Shiseido Gallery in Tokyo. Her illustrations have appeared in the New York Times.
Karen Barbour, 2014 from New York Times article "Cousins, Across the Color Line"
Karen Barbour, 2013, from New York Times article "The Misnomer of 'Motherless' Parenting"