“I am interested in resiliency— what it looks like, what it feels like, and how to promote it. By observing strategies within nature and industry, I have found that modular units, reproduction, variety, and mutation are essential elements in a resilient system. In my studio, I operate within this framework as a way of modeling and putting these observations into practice. I often begin with observational drawings and work through a series of translations across varied mediums, revealing inherent adaptable qualities of the imagery and the materials. I often re-use works and re-present them in varied groupings, further playing out their elasticity.”
—Karen Gelardi

Karen Gelardi a Maine-based artist working across multiple mediums to model resiliency and adaptation. Gelardi has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied painting. She has been awarded residencies at Surf Point, Hewnoaks Artist Colony, and the Quimby Colony and received grants from the Maine Arts Commission and the St. Botolph Club Foundation. Gelardi has exhibited her work at Coleman Burke and Curator galleries in New York, Northern-Southern in Texas, and widely throughout Maine including at Alice Gauvin Gallery’s pop-up exhibit curated by Rachel and Ryan Adams, Interloc, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Able Baker Contemporary, 37A Gallery, Perimeter, Space Gallery, and the Map Room.