Needham Artist Karen Krieger Featured in N. Reading Gallery Exhibition

Gorse Mill Studios artist, Karen Krieger, is featured in Inner Space Fine Arts’ Land/Water exhibition from November 12 – December 23, 2022, in North Reading, MA. This two-person show also presents New York abstract artist Elise Freda. Land/Water will open with a public reception on November 12, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Both abstract artists have a sensitivity towards nature and use it as a jumping off point in their work. Krieger uses her own combination of painting media including natural pigments, graphite and acrylic, along with Chinese ink on Xuan paper, allowing it to flow and transform, creating atmospheric landscapes of mountains, land, water and sky. Freda uses mixed mediums -- acrylic, gouache, egg tempera -- to form images that evoke oceans, rivers, lakes, mountains, and fields. Krieger and Freda are process-oriented artists, letting the inherent alchemy of their mediums participate in the evolution of their images. In the studio, Krieger and Freda act and react, letting all the additions and subtractions along the way become part of the final image that emerges. Both artists share an affinity to an eastern sensibility, embracing the quality of immediacy to make timeless, universal, and meditative spaces.

Krieger states, “I explore the simplicity of empty spaces, the essence of a mountain, the flow of water and the movement of mist. I’m after an interior vision of landscape, using a non-representational approach to elicit a feeling instead of replicating a specific scene in nature.” Krieger’s work has been featured in exhibitions in the US and UK, and her paintings are in numerous private collections.

Krieger’s paintings examine the complex interplay between the atmosphere and the landscape. She is inspired by the ancient Chinese tradition of portraying the personal experience of viewing a mountain, rather than by conveying a literal representation of it. She aims to convey the great depth of a mountain range and invites the viewer to bring their own connection to the inherent flow, patterns, and natural spirit of a painting by subtly hinting at misty heights. In harmonizing intentional brush strokes with a serendipitous movement of ink or pigment, Krieger works toward preserving the natural ebb and flow of both painted and empty spaces on the paper or canvas surface. Each painting, whether small or large, captures the emotion of a grand landscape.

With an intuitive rather than a typical structured approach to painting, Krieger has found a way to merge contemporary ink painting with a mix of her own custom made paints, pigments, and mixed media techniques.

She paints out of her studio in Needham, MA at Gorse Mill Studios, a restored mill converted into artists’ studios. Her work can also be seen at www.art203.com and @karenmkrieger on Instagram.

Freda says, “I use the process of painting to evoke and celebrate the natural world: mists rising over fields, changing contrasts of light and weather, and the infinite depths of water and sky. I relish the mystery of abstraction, how the unknown eventually evolves in to the known.” Freda has shown her work throughout the US and has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Wall Street Journal. Her studio is based in the Catskills, NY.

Inner Space Fine Arts is located at 189 Main Street, in the iconic octagonal building, in North Reading, MA. For more information, visit www.innerspace-fineart.com