Karen Gubitz
Bio:
I am a self-taught fiber sculptor. At the age of 60 I retired from a law career to begin my life as a full time artist. Since then I have been accepted into and won several awards at various fine art exhibits, galleries and fine craft shows around the country.
Artist Statement:
I select, I plan, I form, I build, I fashion, I arrange, I assemble, I make, I create.
As a fiber sculptor, first and foremost, I am a materialist. I explore the flexibility of material to extract its highest resiliency, its potential for dimensionality and its surface possibilities.
The artistic decisions that I make are intuitive, found someplace inside me where, in my own estimation, the sum of all my visual experiences are stored. I draw upon them when needed and continually add to them by experiencing the world around me.
As the noted fiber artist and educator Warren Seelig wrote, “When you experience a place it is the materiality that you engage with, and it is the expressiveness of that materiality that makes the place memorable and rich.”
My hope is that my work reflects this experience.
List of Artistic and/or Professional Experiences
Indoor Exhibits:
-2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
-2012 Washington Craft Show, Washington DC,
-2013 and 2015 Michigan Fine Art Competition, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center
-2012 CraftBoston, Boston, Massachusetts
-2013 American Craft Exposition, Evanston, Illinois
-2014 Water Street Gallery, Batavia, Illinois (Honorable Mention)
-2014 to 2023 Oak Park Art League Group Member Exhibitions (Numerous Awards)
-2014 Lubeznik Center for the Arts “Material Possessions”
-2015 solo exhibition, Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois, the Wadsworth Family Gallery
-2015 Sculpture Invasion, Koehnline Museum of Art, DesPlaines, Illinois
-2016 solo exhibition, Birmingham/Bloomfield Art Center, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
-2016 solo exhibition, Decatur Illinois Area Arts Council at the Madden Arts Center
-2016 Chicago Sculpture International (CSI) Exhibition, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois
-2016 CSI Exhibition, Valparaiso University, Brauer Museum of Art, Indiana
-2017 CSI Exhibition, Eastern Illinois University, Gallery 1910
-2023 World of Thread, Toronto, Canada
-2023 Fiber Art Now, Battlebro Vermont Museum
-2024 Alma Art Interiors, CSI Exhibition
-2024 Epiphany Art Center, Solo Exhibition
Outdoor site-specific installations and sculptures:
-2014 Chicago Tree Project “Second Chances”, Harold Washington Park, Chicago, Illinois
-2014 ArtPrize “Grand Gathering”, site-specific installation at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan (top 20 installations)
-2014, under a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, “The Basketry Project”, a series of 16 site specific woven sculptures in the Oak Park Arts District, Oak Park, Illinois
-2014 “Limbic No. 1”, Oak Park Sculpture Walk, Oak Park, Illinois
-2015 “Black Blossom”, Oak Park Sculpture Walk, Oak Park, Illinois
-2015 Recycled/Reclaimed/Reused/Recrafted, Nicholas Conservatory and Gardens, Rockford, Illinois
-2015 “Hanging Around”, Oak Park Art League, Oak Park, Illinois
-2015 “Three-Quarter Time”, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, mentor site-specific installation sponsored by the National Basketry Organization 2015 Conference
-2015 Chicago Tree Project, “Gaggle”, an installation on the meridian of Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois
-2023 “Dancing”, Governor’s State University, NATE Sculpture Park
-2023 “River Sprite”, B. Harley Bradley House, Frank Lloyd Wright designed, Kankakee, Illinois
Honors and Memberships:
-2019 Curator and Host of More Basketry: Celebrating Our Community (exhibition of Member’s work at the 2019 NBO Conference at Western Kentucky University.
-2015 Curator and host of local artist exhibition at Gallery Pink, Oak Park, Illinois and Oak Park Village Art Tour for Friends and Family of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.
-North Country Studio Workshop 2016, Awarded Kira Fournier Scholarship
-National Basketry Organization, Board Member 2016
-Curator and Host of More to Consider 2 (exhibition of Member’s work at 2017 and 2019 NBO Conference, Tacoma, Washington)
-Host and director of “Know Your Instructor” a program highlighting the work of instructors at the 2017 NBO Conference, Tacoma, Washington
-Member Sculpture International and Chicago Sculpture International 2013-present
-Artist Member, Oak Park Art League, 2010-present
-Fiber Art Now, Summer Issue, “Paper”