Artist Statement:
"I am drawn to movement and participation as artistic focal points, and Tango is a reflection of these attributes. These became especially prevalent in my art after becoming aware of a large portion of representational art at the turn of the millennium that pointed to isolation rather than interaction. Inspired by Tango dancing, I saw in its beauty of form and richness of light and shadow, that Tango offers symbolic partnership: independent balance with shared reward. Interaction based in movement couples with participation.
Having habitually gravitated between landscape and figure, I have been re-interpreting the roles of these subjects in my art as representations of re-generation. The landscape distilled into more ephemeral aspects of water, light, and rhythm, and the two subjects of landscape and figure artistically translate into metaphor for life with their invitations to join in, sometimes in combination as in the Dance for the Earth exhibition at Cornell University in 2004."
To view images of Karen Kucharski's landscapes and Dance for the Earth art, please visit online at: www.Artdance.us.
About the Artist
Karen is a visual artist and Tango dancer. She teaches and combines her love of the dance with her art, having exhibited larger-than-life-size paintings onstage at Barnes Hall and Statler Auditorium at Cornell University for performances that hosted such performers as Bobby Thompson and Carol Horowitz from Montreal, Canada, and the musical group, "New York Buenos Aires Connection." Her art has shared the stage with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tango group, Quartango, and dancers Roxana and Fabian Belmonte in August 2008, and in 2007 when the BPO hosted Bandoneonist Daniel Binelli & dancers Pilar Alvarez and Claudio Hoffmann.
Other exhibitions include a solo show of her Tango paintings at the Roxbury Arts Group in the Catskills in upstate New York in 2006, and at the Waverly Opera House, in Waverly, NY in 2007. Her work was on exhibit at Atomic Tom's in Binghamton, NY in July 2008.
Kucharski, Artpark, 2008; photographed with permission of BPO, copyright.
Karen is a Professor of Art. She has taught at Cornell University, Syracuse University, Dartmouth College, and other places of learning.