With its focused core embodying a rich spectrum of meaning and interpretation, the work of Karen LaMonte is both an acknowledgement of cultural tradition and a forum of exploration into issues pertinent to contemporary society. Her monumental glass sculptures and monotypes are inspired by an engaged interest in the cyclic theatre of the human body, more precisely the persistent presence it infuses into the clothes it inhabits, shares a common destiny with and then abandons. In this sense, the humblest garment is a gateway to a startlingly complex range of questions relating to identity, gender, social structure, mortality and ultimately how we attempt to define our existence.
From the article The Lady Vanishes by Robert Bell writing for
Artonview - the magazine of the National Gallery of Australia. Summer 2002-03. No. 32.
With its focused core embodying a rich spectrum of meaning and interpretation, the work of Karen LaMonte is both an acknowledgement of cultural tradition and a forum of exploration into issues pertinent to contemporary society. Her monumental glass sculptures and monotypes are inspired by an engaged interest in the cyclic theatre of the human body, more precisely the persistent presence it infuses into the clothes it inhabits, shares a common destiny with and then abandons. In this sense, the humblest garment is a gateway to a startlingly complex range of questions relating to identity, gender, social structure, mortality and ultimately how we attempt to define our existence. 