Karen Gibbons is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York who fuses painting, photography, sculpture and collage with yoga meditation. Through the introspective process of critique, Gibbons transfers desire for specific objects into forms of expression that appear edgy, frail, rustic, visceral and raw. For the artist, aesthetic perfection does not exist within a traditionally enhanced polished product. Instead, it can be found within moments of vague uncertainty.

Form becomes volume in “Blue Madonna” (2016) that starts with a photographic cut-out of a classically rendered sculptured visage. A shade of gray in the upper right corner connects with the black lines that become the subject’s strands of dark hair. Further in, the dark lines balloon and swerve while anchored by two small hands seen on the left and right.

A similar impression emerges from a pink-toned painting titled “Ki” (2016) that shows a boulder-like shape filling the canvas along with extensive layering of what looks like drapery with depictions of both ocean and sky. The small face of a Bodhisattva appears in the upper left corner, associating a figurative likeness to the overall representation. Additionally two open hands and feet visually anchor this otherwise exotic, free-floating subject.

Gibbons uses papier-mâché to suggest billowing volume in a piece titled “Venus” that shows an erotic nude torso lying on its side. From the shoulders to knees, the artist portrays the fusion of a male and female form that transforms into the line and depth of a landscape filled with green vegetation, white clouds and blue sky. “Inner” (2016) by contrast, is a free-standing papier-mâché sculpture that contains the fragmented shape of a standing female figure, who stands embedded deep within a crevasse. A pair of red dress shoes is set upon a chalk-like, orange surface while two separate portraits, seen further in, highlight the play between associations and memories.

Karen Gibbons has exhibited frequently throughout Brooklyn, New York. She received a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College and an MPS in Art Therapy from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. By weaving communication into form, Gibbons conveys a meditative dialogue in each of her artworks. The artist’s technique also reaches into the media of drawing, poetry and meditation. Gibbons has co-authored a book of poetry with Rebecca Aidlin titled Goldfish and Pumpkin Vines. In 2015 the artist wrote and published Integrating Art Therapy and Yoga Therapy: Yoga, Art, and the Use of Intention. In 2017 Karen Gibbons launched an artist residency program in Upstate New York titled River Dreams.