Exhibit: Bodies

Artist: Karen Hare

Playthings: basswood sculpture

Assemblages: oak-framed wool felt wall hangings

August 2023

Bodies by Karen Hare – Show Note

Katie + Gunner 

Bio

Karen Hare is a multidisciplinary artist born, raised and living in Winnipeg, Canada. Karen holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. Having both a design degree and a background in fine arts, Karen’s work often walks the line between functional and sculptural.  

Built out of curiosity, her works are the result of relationships formed with material bodies. Her pieces emerge through participation; nurturing both the predictable and unpredictable nature of a given material. The finished work is often paired back to raw elements, presenting power in softness.

Karen’s process is inherently maternal; creating with intention, repetition and care. She aims to honour material, time, practice and place. Karen seeks a quiet rebellion; questioning the material fabric of art, to challenge the cultural fabric of art. 

Bodies 

‘Bodies’ is the collection of two series of works by Karen Hare. 

One, a small batch of sculptural playthings composed of turned and carved basswood. Meant to be touched, stacked, arranged and rearranged. These soft forms are expressions of the artist’s body through the experience of motherhood. As a mother, the perception of body changes. Places that once held shame, discomfort or insecurity (the knobbly, prickly and doughy bits), become a place of power, comfort, discovery and play. 

The other; a series of tactile assemblages; each one an exploration of the moment that a body comes into being through the play of proximity and absence. Karen utilizes the seed’s raw and opportunistic qualities; adding, one by one, burrs onto wool felt. These bodies are built from soft and quiet acts of resistance, rebelling against permanency and privilege through their materiality. They are slow and seasonal, and require a relationship with the natural environment. They live in the process; finding wonder, patience and peace.

Title, Dimensions and Pricing 

Burdock on Wool felt 

Left to Right 

Burdock 1, 21.375” x 59.25” – SOLD

Burdock 2, 34.25” x 34.25” – $ 1200

Virginia Stickseed on Wool felt:

Left to right 

Stickseed 1, 25”x 25” | $ 1350

Stickseed 2, 25” x 38” | $1500

Stickseed 3, 13.5” x 17” | $450

Stickseed 4, 13.5” x 43.5” | $1200