Karen Gunderson

Born in 1943 in Racine, WI, Karen Gunderson attended Wisconsin State University where she earned a Bachelor of Education degree. She also attended the University of Iowa, where she earned both a Master of Arts in Painting and Master of Fine arts in Intermedia. Gunderson has had a number of international solo exhibitions, including shows in the United States, Spain, The Kingdom of Bahrain, and Bulgaria. In 2001, she received the Lorenzo Magnifico Prize in Painting at the Florence Biennale. Gunderson predominantly uses black, which she believes is a sensuous color, in her images of moonlit oceans. Gunderson says that: "By using only blacks, I'm forcing the focus on the brush strokes reflected by the light."

Gunderson's black paintings use a process which calls upon the haptic, (our sense of touch). When she paints an image, the brush follows the interior contours of the form. It is as if she is tracing the surface of the volume of the image with her brush feeling it in space. The final effect produced depends upon the angle of light refraction and the position of the viewer; when you move, the picture changes and depending upon the images, there is an illusion of volume.