Gallery With A Cause • Located in the New Mexico Cancer Center • Benefitting the NMCC Foundation
Please call gallery director Regina Held to arrange a private gallery tour, make a purchase, or ask any questions.
Karen Benelli has been an artist most of her life. She has lived in many parts of the world and began her formal training as a teenager living in Turkey. She attended classes in art from the University of Rome in the early 80's and continued her art education while living in San Antonio, Texas and Los Alamos, NM. Karen has remained an active artist, working creatively over the last 20 + years.
Karen's painting style can be intricately detailed and naturalistic; or complex, abstracted representational pieces. However, at the heart of her work is an aesthetic that is characteristic of native or primitive art. In the tradition of Earl Cunningham, Grandma Moses, and Georgia O'Keeffe, Karen seeks to tell a story of everyday life, dreams and fantasies, a serene world with a love of color and shapes. Consequently, the watercolors, ink paintings, and acrylics of Karen Benelli are both complicated and simplistic. There is often an indifference to perspective within a highly sophisticated composition. There is an emphasis on the narrative of the work, and the viewer's attention converges on certain details while exploring the succession of shapes and images on the same plane. Karen's paintings demonstrate a diversity of style, and yet, are unified as a body of work. They carry a personal message that conveys a work that is restful, festive and ordinary, beautiful, and mysterious.
While living in San Antonio her paintings were represented by the gallery, Art Inc. Upon moving to Los Alamos, NM in 1994, Karen was the owner of Cafe Allegro, where she displayed her work, along with supporting many other local artists. She has sold her pieces at art shows and fairs, and she has been the recipient of numerous awards. Karen now resides in Bernalillo, NM and is certified as a New Mexico True Artist.
