News & Current Exhibitions
Floating World
Imagine Museum
Back by popular demand, Floating World has been reinstalled at the Imagine Museum!
The seven months I spent in Japan studying kimono profoundly altered my thoughts about the use and meaning of materials.
Opening Reception
Sat., Nov. 12, 2022 6:00pm-8:00pm
1901 Central Ave
St. Petersburg, Florida
Please join us for Japan and Materiality, a live discussion with me and Jane Buckman, Director of the Imagine Museum. Join the live Zoom with artist, Monday, November 14, 12:00EST
American Figurative
Gerald Peters Contemporary
In this transhistorical exhibition, my sculptures are exhibited with canonical artworks by Saint Gaudens, Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, Gaston Lachaise, Paul Manship and Arthur Lee Volupte.
Sartoriotypes
Peters Projects
Santa Fe, NM
Exhibition highlights Sartoriotype Prints, Clouds, Floating World Kimonos, and Nocturnes!! A rare opportunity to see a range of artworks from all major bodies of work.
Peters Projects
1011 Paseo De Peralta
Santa Fe, New Mexico Map
The career-spanning new monograph published by Rizzoli
This wonderful new book integrates 250 images of LaMonte's acclaimed series "from glass, ceramic, bronze, and rusted iron-draped female figures to timely explorations in climatology and biomimetics. In this definitive look at a vital contemporary artist, essays by award-winning authors frame LaMonte's work in the context of female identity, music, art history, and science, placing her alongside other contemporary sculptors who have adopted the human body as an vehicle for expressing the human condition."
The monograph features essays by Arthur Danto, Brett Littman, Laura Addison, Steven A. Nash, and Lucy R. Lippard.
Click to order now from Rizzoli.
Glasstress 2022
State of Mind
Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Murano
WHEN: June 03 — November 27,2022
Tue - Sun, 10am - 5pm
WHERE: Fondazione Berengo Art Space
Campiello della Pescheria 4, Murano
“Coinciding with the 59th Venice Biennale, this exhibition brings together a group of leading contemporary artists from Europe, the United States, Latin America and Africa to focus on the theme of fragility."
Participating Artists
Monira Al Qadiri, Maria Thereza Alves, Ayman Baalbaki, Vanessa Beecroft, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Judy Chicago, Tony Cragg, Jimmie Durham, Chiara Dynys, eL Seed, Endless, Leandro Erlich, Jan Fabre, Ryan Gander, Josepha Gasch-Muche, Kendell Geers, Marya Kazoun, Brigitte Kowanz, Karen LaMonte, Tomáš Libertíny, Massimo Lunardon, Federica Marangoni, Prune Nourry, Anne Peabody, Jaume Plensa, Alexander Evgenievich Ponomarev, Laure Prouvost, Laurent Reypens, Enrico Ruggeri, Thomas Schütte, Liam Scully, Sean Scully, Lino Tagliapietra, Tim Tate, Koen Vanmechelen, Paloma Varga Weisz, Robert Wilson, Erwin Wurm, Rose Wylie, Osman Yousefzada
Past Exhibitions
Past exhibition
This Present Moment
Crafting a Better World
Renwick Gallery of the
Smithsonian American Art Museum
WHEN: May 13, 2022 – April 2, 2023
WHERE: 1661 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC. Map
Stop by if you want to see Vestige, my first large dress sculpture, completed in 2001. It is the sculpture that started my adventures in the Czech Republic and is a promised gift to the Smithsonian!
"The exhibition highlights the role that artists play in our world to spark essential conversations, stories of resilience, and methods of activism—showing us a more relational and empathetic world. It centers more expansive definitions and acknowledgments of often-overlooked histories and contributions of women, people of color, and other marginalized communities.
This Present Moment highlights nearly 150 artworks from the permanent collection. 135 are new acquisitions, never before seen at the Renwick Gallery."
Past exhibition
Glasstress.
Window to the Future
The State Hermitage Museum
11 September to 31 October 2021
St. Petersburg, Russia
The in the Hermitage will feature works by 51 artists, including such famous figures as Karen LaMonte, Ai Weiwei, Renate Bertlmann, Koen Vanmechelen, Michael Joo, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Joseph Kosuth, Petah Coyne, Mat Collishaw, Tony Cragg, Hans Op de Beeck, Jaume Plensa, Laure Prouvost, Jan Fabre and the Chapman Brothers.
Fifty-five works will be displayed in the setting of the General Staff building: miniature sculptures, large-scale installations, chandeliers several metres in size and video art. The exhibition will occupy more than ten halls, including the monumental expanses of the Grand Enfilade and White Hall, as well as the intimate spaces of the Courtyard Gallery and the Red Halls.
The exhibition curators are Dmitry Ozerkov, head of the State Hermitage’s Department of Contemporary Art; Yelisei Zakharenkov, a junior researcher in that department; and Olga Kozhura, laboratory technician in the department.
Click here for more images of Nocturnes
Glasstress.
Окно в будущее
Государственный Эрмитаж
11 сентября по 31 октября 2021
Санкт-Петербург, Россия
На экспозиции в Эрмитаже будут представлены работы пятьдесят одного художника, среди авторов такие известные мастера как Карен Ламонт, Ай Вэйвэй, Рената Бертельман, Кун Ванмехелен, Майкл Джу, Илья и Эмилия Кабаковы, Джозеф Кошут, Пета Койн, Мэт Коллишоу, Тони Крэгг, Ханс Оп де Бек, Жауме Пленса, Лор Пруво, Ян Фабр, Джек и Динос Чепманы и другие.
В пространствах Главного штаба будут показаны 55 работ: миниатюрные скульптуры, масштабные инсталляции, многометровые люстры и видеоарт. Выставка займет более десяти залов среди которых монументальные пространства Большой анфилады и Белый зал, а также камерные пространства Надворной анфилады и Красных залов.
Кураторы выставки: Дмитрий Озерков, заведующий Отделом современного искусства; Елисей Захаренков — младший научный сотрудник Отдела современного искусства; Ольга Кожура — лаборант Отдела современного искусства.
Past exhibition
Théâtre de la Mode
The Barry Art Museum
September 9, 2021, through January 2, 2022
1075 W 43rd St, Norfolk, Virginia
The Barry Art Museum is proud to present Karen LaMonte: Théâtre de la Mode. LaMonte is an acclaimed American sculptor living and working in Prague. By freezing a single gesture of a body both clothed and in motion, LaMonte is able to investigate themes of memory, beauty, and loss. A master craftsperson, LaMonte has pioneered complex casting methods across diverse media. At the Barry, we will set the stage with a selection of her astonishing works in cast glass, iron, and bronze.
This exhibition positions works from LaMonte’s significant sculptural oeuvre in the context of the theater in times of war and upheaval. LaMonte has been inspired by the historical fashion mannequins of Théâtre de la Mode, and here we pay homage to that connection by positioning her work in that performative context. Selections from both her musically referenced Nocturnes series and accompanying Études (one-third scale sculptures) are presented in the gallery, alongside couture fashion dolls that tell the story of these miniature ambassadors or Pandora Dolls through the ages.
Past exhibition
Reality Bites. Art Produces Reality
Exhibition in the new art district of Pietrasanta.
Opening August 29, 2020
52 via Nazario Sauro, Pietrasanta LU, Italy Map
Curated by Alessandro Romanini: “The works on display confirm the ability of creatives from various disciplines to filter the temporal flow of reality, capturing its essence, revealing it clearly, shaping it into harmonic forms, subject to the perception of the sensitive universe. Art shows us once again, the condensed set of roads in front of us, alternatives to the inconsistency of our certainties.”
The exhibition will include three new sculptures of clouds in alabaster and two types of marble.
Past exhibition
UNBREAKABLE: WOMEN IN GLASS
An exhibition that reflects the wealth of contemporary female artists creating works of art in glass. Featuring works from over sixty visionaries from Europe, the United States, Latin America, Iran, and South Korea, UNBREAKABLE: WOMEN IN GLASS explores the endless creative possibilities of glass and the infinite variety of work produced by female artists who continue to be sidelined in the art world.
Susan Fisher Sterling, Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. observes in the exhibition catalog how "we should treasure spaces in which female artists are able to take center stage.
At The National Museum of Women in the Arts we strive to create space, both symbolically and physically, for female artists. In 2020 many people in the art world would like to believe that we have achieved parity, but the truth is we still have a long way to go. This is why spaces celebrating female artists remain so essential, and an exhibition such as UNBREAKABLE: WOMEN IN GLASS is still important even today." Advanced casting technology also enabled new works to be produced remotely resulting in a new collaboration with the iconic American artists Judy Chicago and Karen LaMonte.
Other works to note are Shirazeh Houshiary’s architectural Flicker, the impressive chandeliers of Joana Vasconcelos, the glass window of Cornelia Parker, and Fiona Banner’s scaffolding. The exhibition will include new works by Renate Bertlmann, Marya Kazoun, Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Enrica Borghi, Rosemarie Benedikt, Maria Grazia Rosin, Laure Prouvost, Lucy Orta, and Maria Thereza Alves.
5 September 2020 - 07 January 2021
Fondazione Berengo Art Space
Campiello Della Pescheria,
Fondamenta dei Vetrai, 30100, Murano Map
Past exhibition
CONTEMPLATE JAPAN
Brunnier Art Museum
Contemplate Japan at the Brunnier Art Museum aims to illuminate the artistic and cultural developments emanating from Japan for the last two centuries and their influence on the arts in the West. Drawn from permanent and loaned collections, the exhibition will include nine different areas of both traditional and contemporary objects: Japanese woodblock prints, bamboo baskets, ikebana floral arrangements, kimono, dolls, ceramics, and contemporary sculpture.
“Iowa State is fortunate to have a robust collection of objects from Japan and those influenced by Japanese design. Contemplate Japan consists of several hundred permanent collection and loaned objects reflecting the importance of Japanese culture and history, highlighting how those objects continue to inspire artists and visitors alike.”
– Lynette Pohlman, Director and Chief Curator, University Museums
Brunnier Art Museum Map
295 Scheman Building
1801 Center Drive Ames, Iowa
Please join for Alice Hammond's presentation Floating World: Karen LaMonte's kimono sculptures
February 23, 2020, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM at the Brunnier Art Museum.
Past exhibition
Embodied Beauty
Gerald Peters Contemporary NYC
For the first time in a decade, I am thrilled to have a major exhibition of my sculptures in New York! Embodied Beauty, a mini–retrospective of my work, will be exhibited at Gerald Peters Contemporary in New York, October 28 – December 20.
The exhibition will occupy the entire gallery with sculptures of Kimonos, Nocturnes, and Etudes in glass, iron, bronze and ceramic.
Gerald Peters Contemporary
24 East 78th Street, New York
Between 5th & Madison. Map
Exhibition: Oct 28 – Dec 20
Hours: Mon–Fri 10 AM – 5 PM
Or by appointment
E-mail • Web • 212.628.9760
The gallery is a townhouse with steps to enter, so unfortunately is not wheelchair accessible. Once inside there is a small elevator.
Fine Art Connoisseur Features Karen LaMonte
Magazine publishes "Today's Masters" article in its July/August 2019 issue
This wonderful article goes deep into Karen's history, inspiration, and major works. Writer Leslie Gilbert Elman describes Karen's art as "ethereal and haunting, provocative and entirely captivating," and highlights pieces including Kabuki, Nocturne 1, and Etude 8.
To read the full feature, click here, then click the download icon at left. Visit Fine Art Connoisseur online here.
Past exhibition
Seattle Art Fair
Gerald Peters Gallery | Booth B25
August 1–4, 2019
My artwork will be exhibited at the Seattle Art Fair in a mini–retrospective by Gerald Peters Gallery. It will feature sculptures and works on paper, including the premier of new photographic works, Tableaux.
Collectors Preview
Thursday, August 1, 2019 | 3:30 - 6 PM
Opening Night Preview
Thursday, August 1, 2019 | 6 - 9 PM
Fair Hours
Friday, August 2, 2019 | 11 AM - 8 PM
Saturday, August 3, 2019 | 11 AM - 7 PM
Sunday, August 4, 2019 | 11 AM - 6 PM
Past exhibition
Embodied Beauty
Gerald Peters Projects in Santa Fe
At Gerald Peters Projects , a major installation of Embodied Beauty brings together two series of works, Floating World and Nocturnes, to examine ideals of beauty in different cultural contexts.
May 24 — Aug 17, 2019
Gerald Peters Projects
1011 Paseo De Peralta
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Past exhibition
Glasstress 2019
Venice Biennale of Art
For the historic tenth anniversary, Reclining Nocturne was paired with terrific artworks by Fred Wilson and Mat Collishaw for Glasstress (curated by Vic Muniz and Koen Vanmechelen) during the 2019 Venice Biennale. The exhibition also has wonderful sculptures by Ai Weiwei, Tony Cragg, Shirazeh Houshiary, Vik Muniz, Jaume Plensa, Lino Tagliapietra, Koen Vanmechelen, Thomas Schütte, Tracey Emin, Laure Prouvost and others.
May 11 – Nov 24, 2019
Fondazione Berengo Art Space
Campiello Pescheria 4, Murano Map
Past exhibition
Embodied Beauty Sculptures by Karen LaMonte
Hunter Museum of American Art
Chattanooga, Tenessee
May 25 through September 2, 2018
Click here for more images
Artist Karen LaMonte challenges the inherent qualities of glass and explores the dress form as a metaphor for gender, identity and the human body. Embodied Beauty examines her two newest series, Floating World and Nocturnes, through 32 sculptures in various media.
Floating World developed from LaMonte’s residency in Kyoto, Japan, where she studied all aspects of the kimono—from weaving and construction, to ceremonial function and historic meaning.
The Nocturnes harken back to LaMonte’s earlier works which drew on her interests in Classical Greek and Roman figures. The female forms in LaMonte’s sculptures, absent, yet implied through the clinging fabric, raise questions about the role that clothing plays in society, and the impact it has on women’s lives, whether in the east or the west. In the last decade, the artist has also created her ethereal sculptures from clay and cast her pieces in bronze and iron, several of which will be featured in the exhibition.
All Things Considered NPR
WUTC interview
Hunter Museum Displays 'Embodied Beauty' Sculptures by Karen LaMonte
This video is an NPR interview with Karen LaMonte about the exhibition, combined with a slideshow of photos from show.
Station: WUTC
Interviewer: Will Davis
Original air date: June 1, 2018
NPR Interview with Karen LaMonte
Past exhibition
During the 57th
Biennale di Venezia
Glasstress
Palazzo Franchetti,
San Marco 2847
Venice Map
May 11 - November 26, 2017
Click here for more images
This monumental sculpture by Karen LaMonte comes from her work with atmospheric scientists modeling weather. It was exhibited during the 2017 Venice Biennale.
The exhibition is open! I have two installations as part of Glasstress during the Venice Biennale. In the gorgeous main foyer of the Palazzo, I will show an installation of reclining and standing figures in white bronze and glass from my Nocturnes series. Watch a 5-minute video short Understanding Nocturnes.
In front of the main entrance in the garden, I will premiere my first monumental sculpture in marble called Cumulus. Cumulus is a meditation on the contradictions of weight and weightlessness, material and immateriality, presence and absence. Clouds are elusive – they have no edge and no fixed form – yet this carved marble piece is an exact representation of an actual cumulus cloud.
Although, clouds appear to float effortlessly, they carry enormous weight, as much as 80 elephants. The size of the sculpture is driven by the water weight of the cloud. This is a 50% scale version.
Cumulus will focus peoples’ attention on weather and climate change. There could not be a more appropriate city than Venice.
Other artists in the exhibition will be from around the world: Koen Vanmechelen, Ai Weiwei, Paul McCarthy, Ugo Rondinone, Abdulnasser Gharem, Loris Gréaud, Jan Fabre, Thomas Schütte, Vik Muniz, and Sarah Sze among others.
The exhibition is curated by Dimitry Ozerkov (Director of the Hermitage 20/21 Project for Contemporary Art at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), Herwig Kempinger (President of Secession, Association of Visual Artists, Vienna) and Adriano Berengo (President of Fondazione Berengo and founder of Glasstress, Venice), with the consultancy of Clare Phyllis Davies (Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
Past exhibition
Floating World Exhibition
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
October 6 – December 16, 2017
The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum will exhibit Floating World, a multi-room installation of kimonos sculptures in bronze, rusted iron, cast-glass, and ceramic.
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Saginaw Valley State University
7400 Bay Road, Saginaw, MI 48710
October 6 – December 16, 2017
I am grateful for the support of the https://www.arts.gov/, the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
Also, thanks to the http://www.jusfc.gov/National Endowment for the ArtsJapan-U.S. Friendship Commission for my fellowship in Japan. They are doing great work this year promoting Arts Japan 2020.
Click here for more images!
Kimono sculpture Kabuki asks complex questions about beauty and identity
Cast Glass 60" x 32" x 33"
Past exhibition
Floating World at the Chazen Museum of Art
The Chazen Museum of Art has created an immersive exhibition where you walk through groups of kimono sculptures interspersed with stunning Ukiyo-E prints from their own collection.
Click here for more images
Detail image of bronze sculpture of a kimono called Odoriko
54" x 30" x 17"
Past exhibition
Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery.
After a multi-year renovation, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery has reinstalled their permanent collection in an exhibition called Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery. Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery will be exhibited.
WHEN
Exhibition Opens July 1, 2016 - Ongoing
Open daily 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
WHERE
Renwick Gallery
Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW
Washington, DC
Past exhibition
Crocker Art Museum
Glass for the New Millennium
Masterworks from the Kaplan-Ostergaard Collection
July 10, 2016 — October 02, 2016
Contemporary glass leapt into the 21st century with new heights of expression. This exhibition surveys the work of some seventy dynamic global artists pushing the medium’s boundaries to make art in its fullest definition. Included are the field’s premier visionaries—Dale Chihuly, Nick Mount, Klaus Moje, Lino Tagliapietra, Marvin Lipofsky, and others, who made glass a vehicle for ideas, forever transforming the 20th-century studio movement. Their passionate exploration of European traditions and pursuit of material mastery formed networks of artists, expanding the appreciation of studio glass across continents. More than ever, at the turn of the century, material handling and conceptual exploration challenged how we perceive mass, volume, and form. From the life-sized, figural forms of Karen LaMonte to the cast-glass abstractions of Richard Whiteley, and the expectation-shattering sculptures of Masahiro Asaka and Christina Bothwell, the future of contemporary sculpture emerges.
Past exhibition
Alexander Tutsek Foundation for Arts + Science
Life is a Beach: Contemporary Art by International Artists
The exhibition at the Alexander Tutsek Foundation in Munich, Germany has been so popular they are extending it until September 2nd 2016!
Entitled LIFE IS NOT A BEACH, the exhibition addresses the dark sides of life.
When: Extended until September 2nd, 2016
Where: Karl-Theodor-Straße 27, 80803 München, Germany Map
Museum Acquisition
Corning Museum of Glass
I am thrilled that the Corning Museum of Glass has acquired Nocturne 5 for their permanent collection. It joins Evening Dress with Shawl that they acquired in 2005. Together, they represent the pinnacle of two distinct bodies of work spanning 18 years. The Museum has just completed a stellar new wing and is a wonderful and worthwhile destination, even for those who have been there before.
Museum Acquisition
Vero Beach Museum of Art
I am honored that the Vero Beach Museum of Art Acquisition has acquired Reclining Dress Absence for their permanent collection. It is currently on display, paired nicely with a painting from Jim Dine of a bathrobe called The Red March Forward.
Past exhibition
Nocturnes
Inspired by the beauty of night, I call these sculptures Nocturnes – dark, seductive, and sublime. They are absent female forms rising from penumbral garments as figurations of dusk.
With twilight as my muse, I am building on the legacy of night meditations from Whistler, John Field, and Frederick Chopin. These artworks explore the transition from known to unknown, from conscious to unconscious, from reality to dream, and from material to immaterial.
Night is transcendent, transfiguring the personal into the universal. When the veil of daylight recedes, the darkness of night opens the infinite space of the universe that surrounds us. Night tempts with a romantic, limitless, and unobtainable beauty. These sculptures explore evening’s sublime splendor, the mysterious side of feminine beauty.
WHERE • WHEN
The exhibition has closed but the some of the artwork can still be viewed by appointment.
Museum Acquisition
Cincinnati Art Museum
I am honored that the Cincinnati Art Museum has acquired Seat Dress for their permanent collection. It will be unveiled on January 14th along with an exquisite Sanford Robinson Gifford from the Hudson River school of painting, a Jacob Lawrence and an early pieces by Rothko and Nevelson.
Past exhibition
Nocturnes — Chicago
Exhibition dates: November 4th–8th, 2015
Address: Chicago 247 E. Ontario, 2nd Floor Chicago, Illinois
Past exhibition
Toyama Glass Art Museum
I am honored to have two sculptures in the inaugural exhibition of the Toyama Glass Art Museum (富山市ガラス美術館) in Japan.
The opening of the museum was great with a kimono clad woman dancing with gossamer fabric.
WHERE: Toyama Glass Art Museum, Toyama, Japan. Map.
WHEN: Aug 22 - Nov 8, 2015
Past exhibition
Floating World at the Museum of West Bohemia in Plsen.
The exhibition was terrific but sadly it has closed.
James Renwick Alliance: Master of Medium Award
I am deeply honored to be the recipient of the The Masters of the Medium award from the James Renwick Alliance. The award recognizes artists for excellence of their body of work in the five craft areas of ceramics, fiber, glass, metal and wood. The award will be given on March 29, 2015 at 10:00 AM at the The Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC. For more details, please see their website.
Recent Museum Acquisition
The Ringling Museum of Art has acquired Reclining Dress Impression as part of the Kolter Glass Collection, which the donated to The Ringling in 2012 marking the 50th anniversary of the studio glass movement in the United States.
Recent Museum Acquisition
Knoxville Museum of Art acquires Chado in cast glass for their permanent collection.
Smithsonian Archives Interview
The Smithsonian Archives of American Art recorded a oral history as a part of a program started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States. I was honored to be one of the youngest artists ever interviewed.
Past exhibition
Dayton Art Institute
Dayton Celebrates Glass, which exhibited Maiko was from July 12, 2014 - September 28, 2014
Past exhibition
Oklahoma City Museum of Art
FUSION [A New Century of Glass]
June 14 – September 9, 2012