KAREN  AMY  FINKEL  FISHOF
CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

Born in the Bronx, NY, Karen attended Syracuse University where she received a BFA in painting. She studied a year abroad at St. Martins School of Art, London, UK, where she first started creating photograms under the same professors as Gilbert and George and showing her work in New York.

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Karen has designed window displays for Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, Dress Barn Stores and major music labels, Sony, BMG, Universal, Warner, album art for Ringo Starr, backdrops for celebrity appearances as well as fashioned licensed products for Kraft Foods, Simon Malls, Crayola, Nickelodeon, Imax, Cartoon Network and Gameboy after receiving a second degree in Graphic Design.

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Karen’s bold, immediate, powerful aesthetic is unmistakably hers. Fishof utilizes the human body, text, objects, and animals as tools of communication to reveal and question the status quo in a pictorial production. Her art allows the viewer to examine their perspective on the misrepresented. Karen’s unorthodox use of materials frees photography from the rigidity of the past and informs part of the ongoing reconstruction of art history. Encountering her work, one immediately faces the proportion of human scale. She works with the mechanics of the human body against gravity and light. The images present an opportunity to pay attention to details such as bone structure, hair, and clothing that can only be revealed by her process. Their intrinsic nature takes on new dimensionally. The transformation of a three-dimensional human into a two-dimensional light impression acknowledges the sculptural aspect of her invention.

 

The ingenuity of her compositions thrusts the narrative forward. She is unafraid to make bold statements propelled by a sense of urgency. The thoughtful posing of each figure and placement of each object, labored over with a degree of precision, testifies to her mastery of dialogue. We cannot help but form a human connection with the humanity we are facing.

 

Karen exhibits frequently in galleries, museums, and art fairs. including, The Griffin Museum of Photography, The Fisher Museum of Art, UCLA, The San Diego Museum of Art, The Orange County Center For Contemporary Art, PhotoLA, The LA Art Show, PULSE Art Fair, The Other Art Fair by Saatchi and The Brand Library and Art Center producing large-scale works. Her work champions the here and now in a dramatic dialogue of the current, deliberately testing the limits of legibility, challenging the viewer with unexpected aesthetic and thematic constructs. Karen’s work has never been more relevant.

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“The bold work of Karen Amy Finkel Fishof is certainly a product of our times”

- TOM TEICHOLZ - Forbes Magazine

 

“Karen’s work not only grabs one's attention but holds it.”

- EDWARD GOLDMAN - ART CRITIC, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO & HUFFINGTON POST 

 

“Karen’s entire body of artwork is extremely original.”

- PAMELA SCHOENBERG - OWNER dnj GALLERY

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