Our current exhibition at 47 Albemarle Street, London, is Gunderson's first solo show in London and follows her successful solo exhibition at our New York Gallery in 2012. Her work since the 1980's has involved the use of only black or white paint. Images of seascapes, brambles, mountain views and depictions of the moon appear in the reflected light caught in the texture of the brushwork. This simple effect creates ethereal and shimmering imagery.
As Mark Daniel Cohen noted recently: "In essence Gunderson directs the reflection of light, controlling the physics of illumination and transforming the painting's shimmer of glistening black, creating the image out of pure light."
Karen Gunderson was born in Racine, Wisconsin, USA. She earned an MA in Painting and an MFA in Intermedia from the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa and has since received many honours and awards, including a Lorenzo Magnifico Prize in Painting at the 2001 Florence Biennale, Italy. Significant solo exhibitions include: the Charles A. Wustum Art Museum, Wisconsin, 1985; Brattleborough Museum Art Center, 2002; Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, 2004; Museum of Gdansk, 2009 and Bahrain National Museum, 2010. Her paintings were included in the ART in Embassies US program in Togo, West Africa 2000 and in Manama, Bahrain, 2010. In 2013 she exhibited her work at RAM (Racine Art Museum), Racine, Wisconsin.