Karen Gelardi

Karen Gelardi is interested in resiliency: what it looks like, what it feels like, and how to promote it. By observing nature and industry, Gelardi has found that modular units, reproduction, variety, and mutation are essential elements in a resilient system. In her studio, she operates within this framework as a way of modeling or putting these observations into practice. Repeatable drawing units, handmade and industrial production techniques, acceptance of imperfection and damage as a way to reveal inherent qualities of adaptability, translating an image, technique or idea from one medium to the next—all of these strategies are used in her approach to building images, objects, and environments. Gelardi lives and works in South Portland, ME.