Rising to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, Karen Kilimnik established her place as a forerunner in the realm of "scatter art"—large gallery installations of seemingly random and scattered popular culture debris. Blending elements of fairy tales, history, myths, and reality she creates unique scenarios that include, among many other elements, references to the 1960's television series The Avengers, The Beatles, Little Red Riding Hood, ballet stages like Giselle's Cottage at the Bolshoi, photographs of dead squirrels and birds reminiscent of Dutch still-life paintings, gold frames, velvet curtains, mirrors, cobwebs, swords, and axes accompanied by sound-tracks of 18th century choral and harpsichord music as well as the sound of clinging crystal chandeliers.

More recently, her attention turned to paintings and photographs that reflect the artist's concern with the natural world, and her expansion of historical landscape painting. As if going back in time, Kilimnik interest in historical, literary and aesthetic features of a romanticized past is able to introduce new forms of clarity through an uniquely refracted perspective.

Born in Philadelphia in 1955, Karen Kilimnik studied at Temple University. She has had solo exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; 303 Gallery, New York and White Cube, London. Group exhibitions include Pretty Ugly at Maccarone, New York (2008); The Third Mind, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007); Defamation of Character, MoMA PS1, New York (2006), and Drawing from the Modern 1975-2005, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2005), among others.