Karen Atkinson is an installation artist, independent curator, collaborator, artist's advocate, publisher, and editor with over 20 years experience. She has exhibited and curated shows at venues spanning 5 Continents - including Johannesburg, Sydney, Austria, Mexico, Montreal, Toronto, Havana, New York, Los Angeles, and various stops in between. Karen’s work methodically dissects history in order to reveal the un-considered side of the story: constantly returning to those aspects that remain hidden or misrepresented by posterity’s official recordings. In her diverse approaches (be it installation, public projects, web-based communities, software, or curatorial strategies) Karen’s projects happen in the traditional contexts of museums & galleries... but they also happen in overlooked places, in side streets and back alleys, at movie theaters just before the show starts, and deep inside the souls of old parking meters that’ll tell you a story for a quarter. Often focusing on the trappings of power and the ritual of labor, Karen creates inventive systems that amplify the voices of the unheard. Karen’s engages her audience as both co-author and witness: creating unpredictable cycles of new thoughts and new associations that challenges perceptions, perspectives and assumptions.

Karen is an educator of the highest order, and has been a mentor to literally an entire generation of CalArts alumni and emerging artists across Southern California and the world. Not only is Karen an alumna of CalArts, but for 19 years she has had the distinction of being one of the most-loved members of the Art Faculty. In every school in the country, there is that "one teacher" who bends over backwards for their students, who really cares about her students, who consistently exceeds student’s expectations on a daily basis and never expects anything in return. For the CalArts Art Program, that "one teacher" is Karen Atkinson. Karen has adopted the role of surrogate mom for out-of-state students: always making sure the incoming class of LA Transplants are adjusting well to their newly adopted home, and has even gone so far as to open her home to students who can’t make it home for Thanksgiving dinner. Karen is that teacher who will give you a scathingly thorough critique: it isn’t what you always want to hear... but she does it in such a way that it actually makes sense. More importantly, Karen’s critique empowers young artist to take their work down an unconsidered path... and, damn it if she isn’t always right. Karen is the perfect balance of Inquisitor and Cheerleader: she’ll tear you a new one, but when all is said and done, you’ll both end up laughing wildly over coffee while she helps you figure out how to get your shit together. It’s that rare combination of traits that has made her legendary figure in the art world, and has left an entire generation of emerging artist in her debt.

To view Karen's CV, please click here.