Karen Spears
Karen Spears is an interdisciplinary artist and teaching artist whose work explores place and connection through mixed media, photography, video, and alternative photographic processes on paper and textile. Rooted in her foundation as a painter, Karen merges photography with painted pigments, embracing the beauty of imperfection in the handmade.
Karen’s practice explores place through landscape, domestic interiors and lived-in spaces, examining the labor of domestic life, the passage of time, and the moments of quiet beauty found in the everyday. Through depictions of household objects, Karen explores the power of narrative and time, transforming the ordinary into artifact and the histories that objects carry.
Karen studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont. After relocating to the Southeastern United States, she developed an affinity for Southern light and landscape. She is currently based in South Carolina.
CV
-
2026
Signs of Life, Dalton Gallery, York County Council of the Arts Rock Hill, SC
Days of Summer, Virtual Exhibition Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville, SC2024
Taking Up Space, ClearStory Arts, Chattanooga, TN, group exhibition of female artists and makers that reside in the SouthEast United States in partnership with Thrive Arts Collective.
The Hand: The Magazine for Reproduction-Based Arts, Issue 46
2023
2023 Faculty Exhibition, Wingate University, Wingate, NC
2022
2022 Open Juried Exhibition, Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT, group exhibition juried by Davida Carter and Joshua Farr
2019
New Old Image eXchange, School of Art and Design Ohio University, Athens, OH
2018
Beyond the Frame, The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC 12 month jury selected cohort of female photographers culminating in a group exhibition.
2018 Faculty Exhibition, Providence Day School, Charlotte, NC2016
“Cry, Baby, Cry: A Zine About Tears”, curated and designed by Caitlyn Metz and Amanda Robinson, printed by Cat McMillan and Done Department, St Louis, MO
Home/Making, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
140 Years of Making It: Alumni Exhibition, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Reuniting By Degrees, The Milkcrate, Hanover, MD
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Vermont College of Fine Art, Montpelier, VT
Spring 2016 MFA Visual Art Exhibition, Vermont College of Fine Art, Montpelier, VT2015
2015 Faculty Exhibition, The Blue Ridge School, Saint George, VA
Fall 2015 MFA Visual Art Exhibition, Vermont College of Fine Art, Montpelier, VT2014
Ahora, Nosotras: An International Mail Art Project About Women; Traveling group exhibition curated by Collective Feminino Virtual Proyecto Art-Esencia. March: Archaeological Museum Cacabelos, Leon, Spain, April - May: Interactive History Museum of Lugo, Galicia, Spain2013
Strangers in Paradise; An International Mail Art Project About Women; Centro Cultural de Hispanoblantes de Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL.
Spring 2013 MFA Visual Art Exhibition, Vermont College of Fine Art, Montpelier, VT
Five by Five, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL2012
#20 Art in the Box, Platform Art, Lakeland, FL2011
Assemblages, The Warehouse, Philadelphia, PA2010
Figure Studies TERRA Gallery, Philadelphia, PA2009
Dragnet: The Art Show, SAGE Projects, Philadelphia, PA -
2024
The Hand: The Magazine for Reproduction-Based Arts, Issue 46
Counter Point: Visual Arts and Literature BiAnnual, Wingate University2016
“Cry, Baby, Cry: A Zine About Tears”, curated and designed by Caitlyn Metz and Amanda Robinson, printed by Cat McMillan and Done Department, St Louis, MO -
2016
Janet Kaplan Award
2001
Judith Fries Scholarship Award -
MFA Interdisciplinary Visual Art, Vermont College of Fine Art, Montpelier, VT
MA Art Education, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA,
BSE Art Education, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
-
2025 - 2026 Rise & Repaint Network
2024 Thrive Together Network