Laura Karetzky paints images that present multiple spaces within a single moment, challenging an understanding of the narrative perspective. Her use of windows, boxes, screens and reflections to establish separate spaces within a larger narrative was inspired by the experience of video chatting, where the viewer occupies their own place while looking simultaneously into other rooms held within the confines of a box on a flat screen. In some of her artworks the window is a physical hole, connecting both planes of two-sided paintings and engaging the entirety of the gallery beyond, a constantly changing narrative within the set story of the painting. Mark-making and dripping paint give a sense of motion and sometimes ethereal figures move in an implied passage of time. Ultimately, Karetzky says, her work “attests to the experience of navigating a multifaceted, multidimensional, multicultural and complicated universe.”
Karetzky holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from The New York Academy of Art with additional studies at The New York Studio School, Rhode Island School of Design and in Florence, Italy through Syracuse University.
She has been featured in multiple solo exhibitions, including at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, The Dallas Art Fair, BRIC House /Brooklyn Information and Culture, Elizabeth Houston Gallery (New York, NY) and Lora Schlesinger Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). She has participated in group exhibitions around the U.S., including in American Portraiture Today at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute (Washington, D.C.); the National Arts Club (New York, NY); Marcia Wood Gallery (Atlanta, GA); and Lehman College Art Gallery (Bronx, NY). Karetzky is the recipient of several awards and residencies, including two TwoTrees Cultural Space Subsidy Awards in Brooklyn, NY; two Mercedes Matter Awards from the New York Studio School; a Kaminsky Family Foundation Residency at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ; and twice at the Corporation of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY. Her art has been featured or critically reviewed in such publications as The Los Angeles Times, Art Spiel, MUSÉE Magazine, artcritical, Hyperallergic, American Arts Quarterly, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Art Scene.
Karetzky resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Instagram: @lkaretzky
