About Karen Allen

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     Karen Allen creates multimedia paintings and objects exploring her poetic visions. Her BFA in painting was earned with an art competitive scholarship at Syracuse University. Coming to the NYC area afterward Allen worked in the creative departments of advertising agencies and publishing houses. She has designed art curriculums for private schools and developed art workshops for public institutions. In 2019 she returned full-time to her artistic practice by designing 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. She is a Bethany Arts Community artist fellow, having been awarded a residency in 2020. Her work is in private collections throughout the United States and Europe. She is a collective member of the BAU Gallery in Beacon, NY. She maintains her studio in Verplanck, NY. 

'Energy and Stillness' Southern Vermont Art Center, Juror Janie Cohen, 2025

'Poetry of Place' curated two-person show with Jenn Wiggs at BAU Gallery, March 2025

'So You Think You're Too Old to...' HVMOCA, Peekskill, Juror, Livia Straus, January 2025

'Dust & Rainbows' Solo show at BAU Gallery September 2024

'Reception' solo show at Window on Hudson, Hudson, NY, July-August 2024

'Curioisites' Solo show in Beacon Room of BAU Gallery, June 2024

'Artists Respond to Poetry', Arts Mid-Hudson Gallery, Poughkeepsie 2024

'Respire’ Annual Juried show  BAU Gallery, Juror Jennifer McGregor, Beacon, NY 2023
‘Our Bodies Ourselves’ Upstream Gallery, Juror  Dr. Wendy Simonds, Hastings, NY 2023
‘ARC in the Dark’, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY 2023

'Rhythm, Rhyme & Harmony' Katonah Museum Artist Association, Juror, Melissa Staiger, 2023

'Poets Respond to Art', Arts Mid-Hudson Gallery, Poughkeepsie 2023

‘Art for Northern Westchester Hospital’, Katonah Museum Artists Association, Mt. Kisco, NY 2023

Westchester Community College Gallery, Peekskill, NY. During Peekskill Open Studios 2019-2025

‘14th Annual Juried Show’, Prince Street Gallery, Juror Anne Harris, NYC, 2022

‘Object of Curiosity’ Katonah Museum Artist Association, Juror, Karlyn Benson, 2022

‘New Beginnings’ Upstream Gallery, Hastings, NY 2022

‘Poetry and Painting’, Bean Runner Cafe, Peekskill, NY. 2022

‘Drawn from Life’ Upstream Gallery, Hastings, NY 2021 

‘Paint’, Silvermine Gallery, Juror Michelle Y Loh, New Canaan, CT 2021

‘Grassroots, Putnam Arts Council and Westchester Community College, 'Artist Choice' award; Juror Patricia Miranda, Brewster, NY 2021

‘Time’ BAU Gallery, Beacon, NY, Juror Samantha De Tillio 2020

‘Arc of the Viral Universe’, Journal Project 2020

‘Arc of the Moral Universe’, Journal Project. 2019

‘The Art of Trees’, The Center at Mariandale, Ossining, NY. 2018 

What I make in my art practice in Verplanck, NY are artifacts - attempts to capture visual intuitions. The hunches I pay attention to offer me a glimpse of who and what I am as a human being. The prompts for the work can arrive as a remnant of a dream or in a vase of flowers right in front of me. 

‘Who Are These People’, ‘Hudson River - Hook Mountain’, ‘Flowers of Good and Evil’, ‘Music Makers' are all bodies of small and mid-sized work which speaks to ongoing themes. They have morphed and changed by my dissatisfaction about  insufficiencies and have been continued by the satisfaction of seeing them come alive.

Small and midsize paintings are starting to get bigger, asserting more presence. I employ a variety of materials such as oil, acrylic, pencil, yarn, recycled cigar boxes, paper, product wrappers, fabric remnants, and the plastic mesh found in the vegetable aisle of the supermarket. I make work from the diverse scraps I surround myself with.

The surfaces of my work often invite a spontaneous caress of the hand. Their stories are personal although not completely understood or revealed to either the viewer or myself . Their imperfection rubs up against a fluency of representation and color. Their narratives allow a space for the viewer's story.

More and more frequently repurposed materials float to the surface like textured warnings. The anxiety of life is there, the sorrow for brokenness, but gratitude for existence too, and a kind of faith found in the making.

I struggle to make objects which are beautiful by being themselves; and I’ve come to see that often this can change on any given day, week, or year. The fluidity of meanings' shapes are part of aliveness to me, seams and ragged edges react with refinement of color and visual passages.

I ask myself many questions while I create these things - looking for a balance of confident ambiguity, trying to communicate something I’ve just stumbled upon, the thing I’ll always be looking for. My paintings contain movement of painted strokes and contrasting values. The verb searching is visualized.

Connections such as Vincent’s letters to Theo, Emily Carr’s forest cathedrals painted on package wrapping, and William Blake’s poetic voice are examples of what leads me to go further into my work. 

My art practice looks for the Deeper Well. I’ve imagined it's pointers stenciled with soot on stone, in the handmade thing that fits in the palm of a hand, and in a painted prayer on a wall.