Roadside Attraction: Karen Bondarchuk

This solo exhibition by visual artist, Karen Bondarchuk, approaches material as the heart of her artistic process within this body of work. Charcoal, ink and tar, as well as scavenged and hoarded tire scraps and press-type lettering, have been the media of choice, as she seeks material best suited to conveying the essence of the birds she focuses on. The drawing and sculpture work in this series explores, among other things, the artificiality that often defines our relationship with the wild, and the reality that most close encounters with wildlife are by human design (zoos, roadsides, galleries, natural history museums, etc). Karen’s work has had common thematic elements of animals and language for several years, examining linguistic and physiological connections between animals and humans, and most recently it has centered on crows and ravens.

Karen is a practicing visual artist whose work—ranging from sculpture and drawing to video and bookmaking—employs a broad range of materials and processes. She is an associate professor of art at the Frostic School of Art at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.
 

To view installation images of the project visit our Installation Album on Flickr.