Karen Fitzgerald is an artist based in Alexandria, Virginia who specializes in re-purposing throw-away objects into miniscule art materials. Through the break-down process, Fitzgerald reconstructs both color and shape in order to contribute to an ongoing narrative that underscores personal and shared standards as well as significance. For the AS | US Residency the artist made two pieces that weave together materials such as Tetra Pak food packaging and pages from mail-order catalogues into free-standing objects with bright, colorful surfaces.

Karen Fitzgerald first made “Nothing to do with what we actually need” (2016) that appears as a broken bowl structure, assembled by the layering of resin over folded bits of catalogue paper. Appearing as clear-coated, lozenge-like structures these colorful dots provided the bases for Fitzgerald’s outdoor sculpture titled “The Invitation.” (2016) Through the mix of discarded junk mail, the artist presents a consistently woven surface that is connected to a recycled wooden door frame. When seen in its exterior installation, “The Invitation” continues the thread of novelty through recovery while standing as a symbol of complexity that has changed the nature of daily consumerist exchange.

In 2005 Karen Fitzgerald received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Harvard Extension School, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since then she has exhibited frequently throughout Indiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Virginia and Washington, D.C. In 2014 the artist was profiled in “40 Years of Art and Community,” published by the Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association. During the same year Karen Fitzgerald also participated in “Generation IX: The Red/Pink Show,” that was hosted by A.I.R. Gallery located in New York City. Fitzgerald’s art was chosen for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Purdue Galleries and in 2016 she was awarded the Sotheby’s Open-Call Artist Prize from the Athenaeum International. Some of the artist’s most recent work is currently on view from January 30th to February 27th, 2017 in a six-person group exhibition titled, “Recollected” at the Cade Gallery in Arnold, Maryland.