Profile
Karen Lorenz
I have always been interested in science and philosophy that ventures beyond the prevailing notion of deductive reasoning, I believe as we wrestle with phenomena and the perception of reality this predominantly western modus operandi based on logic, analysis and separation has lost touch with their equals intuition and feeling.
Yet there are scientists who urge us to learn from non-western philosophy which regards nature as being alive. I feel very close to the idea that every natural system has something that animates organism of all complexities, that geographic features, plants, rocks, water, etc have a soul, consciousness, an inner life. It is through my practice, a hybrid between drawing, stop-frame animation, video and sound installations that I explore the human predisposition to animism.
The words of James Hillman, the founder of archetypal psychology, are very much at the core of my work in as much as,
“…animism is not a projection of human feelings onto inanimate matter, but that things of the world project upon us their own ideas and demands, that indeed any phenomenon has the capacity to come alive and to deeply inform us through our interaction with it, as long as we are free of an overly objectifying attitude.”
2008/9 DCA Devon, Part-time postgraduate Diploma, Visual Performance and
Time Based Arts Practice
2003/5 DCA Dartington College of Arts, Devon, BA (Hons) Devised Theatre
2002/3 Bath Spa University College, English Literature, Creative Writing, Drama
1981/4 Keramik Fachschule Landshut, Germany, Vocational Training
(equivalent NVQ3) qualified ceramicist.
2020 Edge of Dark, NSA, curated by Jesse Leroy Smith, Tremenheere Gallery, Penzance.
2019 On Show, NSA autumn show, Tremenheere Gallery.
2019 Sol Force, A Rampart Banquet of Art for the Solstice, curated by Jesse Leroy Smith, Tremenheere Garden.
2019 Notes In The Garden, Kate Walters and Friends, Tremenheere Gallery.
2019 Ex Libris, NSA, curated by Ryya Bread, Tremenheere Gallery.
2019 Under The Edge Art Trail, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, curated by Martin Clarke.
2018 Nature, Our Nature, Terre Verte Gallery, Altarnun, Cornwall.
2018 On View, NSA autumn show, Tremenheere Gallery.
2019/18 Open Studio, Cornwall.
2018 Drawing Explored, NSA, Tremenheere Gallery.
2018 My Looking Ripens Things, Garden Room Gallery, Dartington Arts, Devon.
2018 Drawing Down The Feminine, Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset.
2017 NSA Critics Choice, curated by Nicolas Usherwood, Tremenheere Gallery.
2017 Sketch 2017, Rabbles Drawing Centre, Marlborough, Touring Exhibition.
2017 Borders, NSA, Tremenheere Gallery.
2016 Drawing Down The Feminine, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Plough Arts Centre.
2016 CMR, Cornwall Media Resource Redruth, joint show with Kate Walters.
2015 Plymouth Society of Artists, Penwith Gallery, St.Ives.
2015 You Are Her, joint show with photographer Philip Pierce, Artisan Gallery, Torquay, Devon
2015 The Big Draw, TAAG, Teignmouth, Devon, October 2015.
2015 Experiments, Birdwood House, Totnes, Devon.
2014 The Imaginary Body, (curatorial project) Harbour House Kingsbridge, Devon.
2017/14/13 Plymouth Society of Artists, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery / Artmill Gallery, Plymouth.
2013 Like it/Don’t Like it/Don’t Care, curated by Kate Walters, Art Pavillion, Tower Hamlet, London
2013 Being at the Edge – The Edge of Being, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, London.
2013 The Hand Also Has Dreams, Birdwood House, Totnes, Devon.
2011 Contemporary Summer Open, Red Earth Gallery, Bickleigh, Devon.
2009 Double Vision – 9 Collaborative Projects, with Kate Walters, The Exchange Penzance.
2009 Ithaca, curated by Stephanos Chytiris, Devon.
2009 Speed and How to Obtain it, curated by Gareth Ballyn, Devon.
2009 The Subversives, Society of Artists, St. Ives.
2008 Women’s Work, The Link Gallery, Winchester.
2007 Spontaneous Combustion 2, Society of Artists, St. Ives.
2007 Brighton Art Fair.
2005 Sketch 2005, Rabley Drawing Centre, Marlborough Wiltshire.
Landesmuseum Stuttgart, Germany
2015 The Big Draw TAAG, prize winner.
2005 Runner-up Rabley Sketchbook Award.
1993/91 Short-listed for Kulturpreis Stadt Offenburg, Germany.
1991 Short-listed Michael Maucher Prize, Germany.
2020 Artist in Residence, Morrab Library, Penzance (postponed due to Covid19)
