—Biography
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biography - statement
- Apr 8, 2022 —CV
- Apr 7, 2022 —Artist Statement
- Nov 8, 2016 —Biography
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essay
- May 23, 2021 —Essay by Richard Speer
- Nov 8, 2016 —Essay by Peter Frank
- Nov 8, 2016 —Review by Ann Landi
Karen Silve, born 1969 in Illinois, currently resides in Portland Oregon. She also spends much of her time in Provence France.
Throughout her career, she has evolved from a figurative and nature painter to an abstract painter. Initially she studied under Alvin Sella, an Italian abstract painter and professor at the University of Alabama. She focused on interplaying emotions with her subjects. However, Silve’s biggest influence was when she studied under Alan Roberts and John Gasparach at the Leo Marchutz School in Aix-en-Provence, a division of the Institute for American Universities. There, she embraced color and nature, and her painting sensibilities became grounded in how she still approaches painting today.
Silve has been collected by numerous private and corporate collections as well as by the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico for their permanent collection. In addition, Silve has exhibited her work extensively in art centers and museums around the world. Her solo exhibitions include the Portland Performing Arts Center in Oregon, the Forsyth Center at Texas A&M University, the Visual Art Center of Northwest Florida, the Tuscaloosa Performing Arts Center in Alabama, and the West Linn Public Library in Oregon. Group exhibitions include those in Doha Qatar, Monterrey Mexico, and Bandar Seri Begawan Brunei as part of the Art in Embassies Program, the Dixon Museum in Memphis Tennessee, the Jemison-Carnegie Heritage Museum in Talladega Alabama. She has also exhibited in New York, Washington DC, New Hampshire, Miami, Chicago, California, Oregon and London through her galleries.
She is a grant recipient of the Oregon Arts Commission, The Family Ford Foundation, and the Regional Arts and Culture Council. She was a Resident Artist at Texas A&M University.