Karen Kamenetzky: The Spaces Between

I can’t think of a material used in art making that provides a more immediate response than fabric. The desire to touch textiles, even in a museum setting, is overwhelming for most viewers. Unlike paint or bronze, we know how good fabric feels. It triggers a visceral response, hardwired from our first baby blanket.

Karen Kamenetzky’s art dazzles the eye, the skin, the mind. Lush color, sensuous textures, and dynamic compositions combine to form organic abstractions of subatomic life. She fuses intense, unexpected color combinations with forms that are deployed in sometimes rhythmic and other times syncopated patterns. Stitching becomes the top note of her jazzy riffs on the microscopic structures of our world.

–Mara Williams, Curator

Currently, my fiber wall hangings are inspired by microscopic/cellular imagery. All changes in essence happen on that infinitesimal level and result in the world we experience. My work is a kind of invented biology, zooming in on that fundamental nature of things and bringing it into vision.

Starting with white cotton and silk, I add vibrant saturated color using dye and paint. Stitching adds lines of light and shadow as well as color. There is a tactile pleasure to handling and making art with fabric. I work loosely from sketches and concepts, but each piece travels a route of evolution and change. My challenge is to trust the process to unfold.

–Karen Kamenetzky

Karen Kamenetzky: The Spaces Between is part of ARTCraft, six concurrent exhibits that explore the boundaries between fine art and fine craft.

IMAGES:
Click here to view selected images from this exhibit.

RELATED EVENTS:
Opening Reception
Karen Kamenetzky Artist Talk

SEE ALSO:
http://www.karenkamenetzky.com/