A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
SAIC faculty member Karen Azarnia.

On This Page

Karen Azarnia

Assistant Professor, Adjunct

Contact

Professional Site

Bio

Education: BFA, Rhode Island School of Design. MFA, The School of The Art Institute of Chicago 2008. Exhibitions: Visual Arts Gallery, Governors State University, University Park, IL; Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnais, IL; TSA Chicago, IL; Riverside Arts Center, Riverside IL; Young Space, Brooklyn, NY; Terrain, Oak Park, IL; Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL; Abryant Gallery, Chicago, IL; Union League Club, Chicago, IL; Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, NE; Highland Park Art Center, Highland Park, IL. Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL Bibliography: Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Hyperallergic, The Huffington Post, Newcity Art, Chicago Woman Magazine, Comp Magazine.

Personal Statement

Karen Azarnia is a painter, educator, and independent curator. Born in Miami, FL, she currently lives and works in Chicago. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Azarnia explores time through the lens of memory, home, and natural life cycles. Inspired by an archive of personal photographs, videos, and drawings, the canvas surfaces are poured, wiped, scraped and layered. At once embracing and pushing against art historical tradition, the work operates in the slippage between abstraction and representation, focusing on the play between description of form and gesture of mark. Evoking a dream-like quality, they are a reminder of the basic human emotions that connect us all, and the fluidity of human perception.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

Students draw from the model as a means of understanding form, shape, and line using a variety of media. The course emphasizes shorter poses as training in immediate response to gesture and form. This course serves as a requirement and preparation for topic-based Figure Drawing B classes.

Class Number

1777

Credits

3

Description

We speak through our bodies, and learn to read other's even before we use words. The figure runs through every culture's art. Even when we work purely abstractly, the figure lurks at the edges and dictates nearly every reference point. This studio aims to teach students how the body communicates, and facilitate its effective use in their work.

Primarily a studio course, we will use images from art history, contemporary art, graphic novels, films and photography, as well as written material, as jumping-off points for long drawings in a variety of media. We will also go on a series of field trips to discuss how to read body language, and discuss its evolution through animal communication to the nuances of human interchange.

This is an advanced studio.

Class Number

1644

Credits

3

Description

This course investigates painting materials, application, color, form, and ideas through contemporary and traditional methodologies. Designed to accommodate many skill levels, students can explore various creative strategies through a skill-based curriculum as well as individual projects. This course serves as a requirement and preparation for topic-based Painting Studio Multi-Level B classes.

Class Number

1624

Credits

3

Description

In our contemporary society, we are constantly bombarded by visual imagery. The goal of this painting course is to create the conditions to slow down and make careful work, unplugging from the distractions of screens and the hectic pace of modern life to become more mindful of the world around us. We will approach the idea of slowing down through engagement with ideas concerning perception/looking, process, speed, and mental focus. This can be interpreted very broadly: the work itself may be abstract, representational or something in-between. We will also consider the ramifications of what it means to make a choice to consciously slow down. The overall process should allow for deeper engagement and development of work.

Class Number

2243

Credits

3