About the Artist

A native Texan, Karen Laborde grew up on a horse and cattle ranch in Oklahoma. Before art and creative writing studies, she was a journalist. She then shifted her concentration to painting mixed media abstracts and writing short fiction. Her work is in private and corporate collections across the United States and in Spain, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Loyola University, The Shaw Group, Orthopaedic Associates of New Orleans and Laborde Dermatology of Houston. Her studio is in a converted factory in New Orleans, where over thirty artists create an array of art forms.

Artist’s Statement

My paintings are an ongoing process of story. The short fiction I write informs each painting as I transfer phrases and sentences onto blank canvas to begin the flow of shape and line, texture and color. Found material becomes metaphor. Marks reveal the intuitive. Desire—to translate in a different form the hidden meanings and feelings associated with language—is a constant theme. To understand what is left unsaid is the horizon. The interplay between two of the most fundamental forms of communication is the muse.

Recent Exhibitions

2009

“Painting the Meaning of Words,” solo exhibition, Isidore Newman School
  Reynolds Ryan Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Group exhibition, Soren-Christensen Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Group exhibition, Alys Beach Artwalk, Alys Beach, FL
Mid-City Studios--Open Studio, New Orleans, LA

2008

Group exhibition, Soren-Christensen Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Group exhibition, Aron Whiton Fine Art Gallery, Houston, TX
The Poydras Home benefit art exhibition, New Orleans, LA
Mid-City Studios--Open Studio, New Orleans, LA

2007

“Waterworks,” solo exhibition, Soren-Christensen Gallery, New Orleans, LA
“34th Annual Juried Competition,” Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA
Mid-City Studios--Open Studio, New Orleans, LA

2006

“New Paintings,” solo exhibition, Soren-Christensen Gallery, New Orleans, LA
“Uprooted:Louisiana Displaced Artists,” LSU Union Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
Mid-City Studios--Open Studio, New Orleans, LA

2005

“Hot Off the Press,” monoprint exhibition and auction to benefit KidsmArt,
         New Orleans, LA
“Postcards to the CAC,” Contemporary Arts Center benefit,
         New Orleans, LA
“Art in Bloom,” New Orleans Museum of Art benefit auction, New Orleans, LA
Group exhibition, Soren-Christensen Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2004

“Abstractions,” featured artist, Brunner Gallery, Covington, LA
“Hot Off the Press,” monoprint exhibition and auction to benefit KidsmArt,
         New Orleans, LA
Group exhibition, Soren-Christensen Gallery, New Orleans, LA
“Postcards to the CAC,” Contemporary Arts Center benefit, New Orleans, LA
24”x24”x24” Compact Competition, LSU Union Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA

2003

9th Annual Gulf Coast National Juried Art Competition, Port Arthur, TX
Louisiana Artists 2003, An All Media Show, Baton Rouge, LA
Slidell Cultural Center Mixed Media Competition, Slidell, LA

2002

“In the Interim,” Brunner Gallery, Covington, LA
“Abstractions,” gallerie éclat, New Orleans, LA
New Orleans Academy of Fine Art Student Exhibition

©2008 - 2010 Karen Laborde - all rights reserved