They were shown in a two-person exhibition at Silvermine Art Center Gallery inConnecticut. They demonstrated how the classic genre of figure drawing can become less academic and more relative to a contemporary viewer. Some can be seen on this website.
The artist when working figuratively is not particularly interested in representing the sublime or the beautiful or the ideal. She would agree with Lucian Freud’s statement about his own figurative works, “I am only interested in art that is in some way concerned with truth.” Therefore she is compelled to suggest or portray more of the uneven, the conflicted, the awkward, the contradictory even the monstrous that can reside in us all. Her figures are often alone and can be placed in mystifying or mystical or metaphysical surroundings that add to their ambiguity. Even in her landscapes and more abstract work, the artist somehow seems to reference the human form. Ms. Sorensen is also interested in gestural markings that provide energy and motion and she often includes something called “pentimenti” in her drawings. These “pentimenti” are slightly visible alterations or adjustments made during the creation of a work that can reveal more information or subtly expose the artist’s change of mind concerning content or composition.
Ms. Sorensen is a member of The Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan, Connecticut. She prints at The Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT. and she is also a member of Connecticut Women Artists.
Karen Sorensen is an artist now residing in Connecticut who has also lived and studied abroad. During the twelve years she spent in London she was one of the first selected for the prestigious Christies Fine Arts Year abroad study program. She also undertook many other art history courses plus continued her work in printmaking, life drawing and painting disciplines.
Ms. Sorensen’s passion lies in the representation of the human form, whether it’s in printmaking, paint or pencil; whether it’s abstracted or rendered literally. An example of her more realistic figurative work was seen in her creation of ten seven-foot tall nudes drawn in charcoal and displayed in various quirky and spontaneous poses and attitudes.