Karen Loader

Karen Loader’s work includes site responsive installations, paintings and objects that fall somewhere between painting and sculpture.

Her work is influenced by modernist architecture and minimalist aesthetics as well as an interest in philosophical theories concerning the subjects of place/space, phenomenology and perception.

Loader is particularly interested in how our perception of place is formed, not only by our visual observations of it, but also by the sensations we feel when moving through that place. Her practice begins with random meanderings through the city, observing the subtle similarities and differences of form and surface that emerge by noticing opposing qualities of light and dark, soft and smooth, near and far – characteristics that contribute to the atmosphere and mood of a place and lead to psychological as well as physical responses.

Using a grid framework, she reduces things down to line and pattern to explore how space, movement and time contribute to a rhythmic interpretation of place. Her muted palette is a subjective response to the observations and experiences of the built environment, but also reflects seasonal and diurnal changes that affect how we feel about different spaces at different times and how this generates a unique experience of place.

Karen graduated with an MA in Fine Art from the City & Guilds of London Art School in 2017. She was subsequently shortlisted for the ARTIQ/Herbert Smith Freehills Graduate Art Prize in 2017 and the Collyer Bristow Graduate Award in 2018 and again in 2019.  Previously she received a first class BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art from the University of East London in 1999 and since then has taken part in numerous group shows and art fairs. She was invited to participate in an Open Lab session at Barbican Guildhall in 2014 and over the past decade she has co-curated several large group exhibitions in London, Sofia, Florence and Berlin on behalf of Candid Arts Trust.