KAREN COILL is inspired by evidence of the handmade in a world where technology prevails and is known for her distinct way of combining vintage materials. Her collage works are, in part, a meditation on the tension between the artisanal and earlier articulations of mass production. Using a palette comprised of vintage periodicals, maps, ledgers, and antique papers, she recalibrates and reframes the sites of a previous authorship into a newly imagined terrain.

Karen studied at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Ma., Boston College, and Oxford University.

Her work is in various public and private collections and she has received multiple awards and prizes for her mixed media constructions. One of her most recent pieces, “kitchen sink drama” was awarded joint first prize in the 2010 international Picture Works Competition, the prize also including a national poster/postcard blitz worth over 25,000 euros. For this exhibition Karen will be showing a selection of collages from her new series “duck duck goose”.
Inspired by the classic children’s game the series is a play on ‘smoking room’ orthodoxy and the echoes of a school yard levity, a humorous, handsome run of americana.

Coill has been represented by The Schoolhouse Gallery since 2002 and also exhibits regularly in Ireland andPalm Beach.

Karen is a long time summer resident of Provincetown.