Bio

Karen Elizabeth Baker is an American fine artist that practices the investigation of image making, from the gelatin silver prints she made early on to her current engagement with digital platforms. Her work explores photography’s link to time, images that conflate memory to a moment outside of the temporal flow. Her foremost signature is capturing the mundane aspects of social landscape in straightforward unglamorous images

Baker studied photography and art history at UCLA and under artists Keith Carter, Roger Ballen, Shelby Lee Adams, Ed Freeman and Julie Blackmon She received a BFA in art and art history with a focus on photography from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has won awards from the New York Center for Photographic Art, the Los Angeles Center of Photography and Monochrome Black and White Photography Awards. Her work is in the collection of the Waiea, Ward Village, Honolulu.

Baker’s images reiterate various tropes about landscape photography, architectural photography, narrative photography still life photography, and various other contemporary – notably, color – photographic practice. Bakerʻs inspirations originate from William Eggelston’s pioneering work in color and the New Topographic photographers Robert Adams, Stephen Shore and Henry Wesselʻs exploration with man altered landscapes. A repeated theme in her work is the portrayal of spaces that seem devoid of human presence, creating tension due to the absence of their human inhabitants. This absence elevates the diverse range of everyday subjects into a cohesive body of artistic expression.

 Exhibition History

GROUP

2024 The Curated Fridge, Spring 2024 Show, Panopticon Gallery, Boston, MA

2024 The Curated Fridge, Spring 2024 Show, https://www.thecuratedfridge.com/Fridge-Shows-1/Spring-2024

2024 LACP Thresholds 2024: Photography and Urban Architecture, Los Angeles, CA

2024 Wade Sisco Gallery Grand Opening, Palm Springs, CA

2024 Through the Lens Juried Exhibition, Artists Center at the Galen Palm Desert, CA

2024 The Curated Fridge, Winter 2024 Show, CAA Canal Gallery, Cambridge, MA

2024 The Curated Fridge, Winter 2024 Show, https://www.instagram.com/p/C2NX_jiCbSh/

2024 ACE Artists Council Juried Exhibition, Artists Center at the Galen, Palm Desert, CA

2024 Desert Open Studios, Indian Wells, CA

2023 Favorite Photo of 2023 Exhibition, Lenscratch, Los Angeles, CA

2023 Off the Wall, Artists Council Center at the Galen, Palm Desert, CA

2023 Winter Solstice Member Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA

2023 Hats Off, 2nd Annual Austin Photography Exhibition, Austin, TX

2023 Earth Exhibition, Artists Council Center at the Galen, Palm Desert, CA

2023 Hot Times-Cool Art, Artists Council Center at the Galen, Palm Desert, CA

2023 29th Annual Online Memberʻs Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography, https://griffinmuseum.org/show/29mje_online/

2023 LACP Life Cycles exhibition, Inner-City arts, Los Angeles, CA

2023 Love Exhibition, Lenscratch, Los Angeles, CA

2022 Member’s Projections, Griffin Museum of Photography Winchester, MA

2021 Open Sea Leather/Art Gallery, Honolulu, HI

2021   Camera USA 2020, Naples Art, Naples, FL

2020   Art In The Time of Corona, Dab Art Co. https://www.dabart.me/atc-exhibit-page.

2020   26th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Online Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA, https://griffinmuseum.org/show/26th-annual-juried-members-exhibition/

2020   Pacific New Media, Contemporary Photography in Hawaiʻi 2020, https://pnmlab.com/karen-baker/

2020   In the In-Between, Class of 2020, https://www.inthein-between.com/the-class-of-2020/

2020   UHM BFA 2020, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, http://www.uhmbfa.com

2020   BFA Show 2020, stp, Serving the People, https://stp.world/pages

2016   Venice Art Walk, Venice, CA

2015   Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA

2014   Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA

2014   Venice Art Walk, Venice, CA

2013   Venice Art Walk, Venice, CA

2012   The Perfect Exposure Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2010   Snap To Grid, LACDA, Los Angeles, CA

2009   Venice Art Walk, Venice, CA

2008   Venice Art Walk, Venice, CA

SOLO

2022 Segue, Hawai’i Pacific University Art Gallery, 2022-2023 Exhibition Cycle, Honolulu, HI

2017   Family Vacation,Town, Honolulu, HI

2013   Family Vacation, Mayhem, Mag Pi, Studio City, CA

2012   Family Vacation, City Center,Fox Studios Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2010   Family Vacation,DKRM Gallery West, Santa Monica, CA

COMISSIONS

2017   Da Babiʻi, 30, 7”x10” photographs, Surfjack Hotel, Honolulu, HI

COLLECTIONS

2017   The Waiea Grand Penthouse, Ward Village, Honolulu, HI

AWARDS

2024 Rear Window, LACP, Threshold: Photography and Urban Architecture, Honorable Mention

2024 The Jungle, LACP, Threshold: Photography and Urban Architecture, Honorable Mention

2024 Shinshu Koyaki, LACP, Threshold: Photography and Urban Architecture, Honorable Mention

2024 Working Man, LACP, Threshold: Photography and Urban Architecture, Honorable Mention

2023 Moon Over, NYC4PA, Luminosity… The Impact of Light, Third Place Award

2023 Garden Party, LACP Life Cycles exhibition, 1st Prize Award

2023 Field of Dreams, LACP Life Cycles exhibition, Honorable Mention

2023 Curve, LACP Life Cycles exhibition, Honorable Mention

2023 LA River, LACP Life Cycles exhibition, Honorable Mention

2023 Orange Periwinkle, Monochrome International Black and White Photography Award

2023 Zabriski, Monochrome International Black and White Photography Award

2023 Felicity, Monochrome International Black and White Photography Award

2021 Fins, Monochrome International Black & White Photography Award

2021 Reid, Monochrome International Black & White Photography Award

2021 Wolf, Monochrome International Black & White Photography Award

2021 Sand Dune, Monochrome International Black & White Photography Award

2021 Lost Mine, Monochrome International Black & White Photography Award

2019 Wired, Monochrome International Black & White Photography Award

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Periodicals

2024 Ashley Davis, “Meet Karen Elizabeth Baker | Fine Art Photographer”, Shoutout Colorado, January 23, 2024, https://shoutoutcolorado.com/meet-karen-elizabeth-baker-fine-art-photographer/

2020   Mary Snyder, “Karen Elizabeth Baker, Photographer”, Q&A: An Interview

Magazine, Issue #1, August 2020, page #56-57

2020   Elizabeth Collazos, “A New Normal…sort of!”, Gemma Magazine, April 5, 2020

https://www.instagram.com/gemmamagazine/?hl=en

Reviews

2009   “The Kid Stays in the Picture: Karen Bakerʻs The Baby Socks it to Us”

Peter Frank, Senior Curator, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA