Karen Moss 

Abandoned

May 31st - August 13th

Opening Reception: June 1st, from 4 - 6 p.m.

Three years ago, while wandering in a thrift shop I encountered a large multi-tiered set of shelving filled to the brim with stuffed animals and dolls. The sight of their arms, legs, and tails hanging over the edge of the shelves jolted me into remembering a shocking image of a photo in a 1945 Life Magazine of prisoners stacked in the barracks of a concentration camp. I immediately sensed the powerful metaphor that these toys provoked and its potential for subject matter in my work. I felt a sense of despair in seeing quantities of them abandoned like orphans.
Since then I have continued to explore the forms and textures of these toys in ways that reflect more current crises. The toys are no longer comforting or seen as cute or cuddly, but rootless and abandoned. They are like the countless refugees on the move around the world and the multitude of homeless we see in our cities. They fall with no safety net abandoned to an uncertain fate.

- Karen Moss

Karen Moss has been drawing and painting since childhood. Her family did not have a TV so her earliest influences were stories and illustrations found in children’s books. She was told that her passion for museums was so intense that at age four she threw a tantrum on the steps of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston upon learning that it was closed that day.

She received a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She has taught Art Education at Wheelock College, Drawing at Massachusetts College of Art, Painting and Drawing at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Harvard University.

Her work has been exhibited throughout The United States and she has had solo exhibitions at the following galleries:  The Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; The Leah Levy Gallery, San Francisco; The Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover; The Addison-Ripley Gallery, Washington DC; The Kathryn Markel Gallery, New York City; The Clark University Gallery, Worcester; The Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, and The Women Studies Research Center, Brandeis University.

Her work is held in numerous private and public collections including The Graham Gund Collection, The Bank of Boston, BankAmerica Corporation, Los Angeles, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Rose Art Museum, Wellington Management, Fidelity Art Collection, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and The Smith College Museum of Art.  

For further information please contact:

Daria Semco, Gallery Manager
daria@howardyezerski.com

Howard Yezerski, Gallery Owner
howard@howardyezerski.com

 Tuesday - Saturday • 11:00 - 5:00 • 617-262-0550