About Karen

Creating art has always come easily for Karen Martin who is proficient in a range of two and three dimensional mediums, her current work being in charcoal. She says of her works on paper, “Charcoal is a pure joy to work with, offering endless ways to explore form, light, shadow and subtle emotions.

Martin’s work has been shown in galleries in New York City, including a one person show at the Soho Center and invitational shows at the Jan Weiss Gallery.

Group exhibitions in New York include those at the Hecksher Museum, Nassau County Museum of Art Annex, and the Islip Art Museum where she received the Museum Choice Award. Her drawing “Valley” was selected for “Her Story”, a juried exhibition presented by Manhatten Arts International and curated by Renee Philips. She received an Award of Excellence.

Martin’s medallic sculpture has been in juried exhibitions in the Musee Histoire, Switzerland, The British Museum, England and the Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland. Select small works are in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Institute’s Numismatic Collection, Washington D.C. and the American Numismatic Association, New York City.

Karen was born in Fort Worth, Texas and lived in New York state for most of her life. Since 2009 she lived in Portland, Oregon until relocating to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2022. She graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and taught in the art department at Adelphi University. She now shows with the Santa Fe Society of Artists.