Karen Dana: Off Hours
@ Material
2025 West Belmont Ave. Cicago IL 60618
Opening Sunday, February 2nd, from 11AM - 2PM
On view through Sunday, March 15th
Off Hours
A solo exhibition by Karen Dana
Curated by Ionit Behar
February 2 – March 15 , 2020
Opening reception: Sunday February 2, 2020, 11:00-2:00 p.m.
The Mexican poet Octavio Paz once wrote that “eyes speak, words look, looks think. To hear thoughts, see what we say, touch the body of an idea. Eyes close, the words open.” This inseparable connection between the senses is central in Karen Dana’s works. As Dana paints with her brush she embodies the labor of women in her family who worked with their hands while knitting, baking and washing. Her compositions offer an intimate and complex narrative of caring and nurturing. Karen Dana’s paintings set in motion a dialogue between private spaces and the various dimensions of domesticity and motherhood.
Chicago based artist Karen Dana (b. 1982, Mexico) is currently a BOLT artist in residence at Chicago Artists Coalition. Dana earned her MFA from Hunter College, New York and a BFA from The National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City. She has participated in national and international exhibitions in Mexico, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, California, and has been awarded several honors including the Chicago Artists Coalition’s Field/Work Residency, FONCA Young Creators Grant, Honorable Mention at the XVI Mexican Painting Biennial, XVI Bienal de Pintura Rufino Tamayo, INBA, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo; MACO Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico. Honors at the XV National Biennale of Painting from Rufino Tamayo Contemporary Art Museum in México and Oaxaca. She currently leads a critique group of artist mothers.
Ionit Behar is an art historian and curator. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Bachelor of Art Theory from Tel Aviv University, and a degree in Art Administration from the Bank Boston Foundation in Montevideo. She currently teaches art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and serves as the Director of Curatorial Affairs for Fieldwork Collaborative Projects.
Karen Dana, Support System, 2019, Oil and ink on canvas, 9 x 12 in.
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Tags: Chicago, Ionit Behar, Karen Dana, Material, Off Hours
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