Karina Hean

Artist Statement
The work revels in the visual pleasure of moments in the landscape and a connection with place, both real and invented.  Selecting, recombining, and embellishing specimens from nature’s complexity interests me as a means to present emotional metaphors while also enjoying the beauty of light, pattern, form, and land.  These imagined landscapes are untraversable spaces but are drawn from moving through and observing terrain.

Artist Biography
Karina Nöel Hean lives in the Galisteo Basin between Cerrillos and Galisteo, NM on the San Marcos arroyo, where the light and land provide daily inspiration.  A life-long art educator, Hean now serves as Chair of Visual Arts at the New Mexico School for the Arts.  She has served on the faculty of the University of Montana, Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Fort Lewis College, and New Mexico State University and holds a BA from St. Johns College, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Drawing from Studio Art Centers International, and a MFA from New Mexico State University.  Karina was the Associate Sales & Gallery Director at Selby Fleetwood Gallery, has worked with SITE Santa Fe in exhibitions and education, and Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts as the Visual Arts Coordinator.  Her artwork is grounded in drawing and printmaking and explores responses to landscape.   She has received an American Artist Fellowship at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ireland and has completed several artist-in-residence opportunities in the US, several at national parks.  Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in museums, galleries, art centers, and universities throughout the US, including exhibits and visiting artist talks at the Gerald and Stanlee Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, UTEP in El Paso, TX; Haydon Art Center, NE; University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE; Furman University, SC; Western State Colorado University, CO; Sam Houston State University, TX;  Krause Gallery, RI; Western Oregon University, OR; McDaniel College, MD; Zane Bennett Contemporary Art; Santa Fe, NM, Gallery Shoal Creek in Austin, TX, and Zia Gallery in Winetka, IL; is included in the Drawing Center’s Viewing Program and is working on an exhibition of drawings at the University of Wyoming, Laramie in 2019.  Karina Hean was born and raised in Mayo, MD on the Chesapeake Bay’s western shore.