Karen Ebbs, Artist Statement

I am a Dublin-born artist working from my studio at the Digital Hub where I am a member of Pallas Projects & Studios.  Painting is central to my process-led practice where I probe new possibilities of “seeing”and understanding the world around me.  I make large-scale installations of paintings and sculptural objects. Here, I explore how everything is connected, how all things come into being through relationships and interactions.  One form begets another as narratives unfold.  My expanded practice is situated in the affective domain of experience.

Through the making of large-scale, colourful installations, I explore how all things come into existence through interconnection, relationship and interaction, how life is not a linear procession moving directly towards a set goal but rather a series of continuous spirals — a search for meaning; a messy labyrinth of course corrections and perceptual shifts.  I am interested in how our focus oscillates between the exterior and interior and how we seek out the numinous to elevate us from the human condition of suffering. I draw from my previous work as a counsellor.

 My work begins with colour - with applications of translucent, opaque and gestural layers of oil paint - and here colour gives life to “felt rather than seen” forms which often become spatialised sculptural elements.  I use a variety of materials including paint, porcelain, wood, metals, foam and written text. 

A core area of my research focuses on how perception occurs and how perceptions are, in fact, “best guesses” which have been primed by all of our accumulated life experiences.  We “see” what we expect to “see”.  Historical affinities exist with mid 20th century, post-war art, with a leaning towards North American painting.

KAREN EBBS    

Artist Bio

www.karenebbs.com     Instagram: @karen.ebbs      karenebbs@gmail.com       

Studio:  Pallas Studios, 157 The Digital Hub, Thomas Street, Dublin

I am a Dublin based artist working from my studio at The Digital Hub and a member of Pallas Projects and Studios.  Painting is central to my process-led expanded practice which is positioned in the affective domain of experience. I am presently showing at Rathfarnham Castle, “Circumambulation” running until 5 January 2025 and later in 2025,  I will present a large-scale installation at the Municipal Lexicon Gallery.  In 2023 I was shortlisted for RDS Visual Artists Awards for my  MFA graduation installation  at NCAD, The Annexe.  I had a solo exhibition at Farmleigh Cowshed Gallery in 2022 and at the Lab Gallery in 2022.  Also in 2022, I was a recipient of the Arts Council Agility award and  DLR Co. Co development award, 2022. 

Over the years, I have been involved in many group shows including the Hamilton Gallery, 'Europe in the Heart of Ireland' 2024, The Art Riddler show 2024, 193rd RHA Annual (2023), the RCPI Climate & Health and was invited to take part in group exhibitions with The Shelter Art Collective, at the Draiocht Gallery in 2024 and in 2023 at The Boyle Arts Festival.

In September 2024, I organised and programmed a talk series at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, 'We need to Talk About Expanded Painting and Metamodernism' featuring artist, art critics, philosophers and educators. These talks follow on from the successful talk series which I organised and moderated in 2022, 'We Need To Talk About Paining' at IMMA and The Complex, again featuring curators, artists and educators,  All talks are found on Sound Cloud.