karen elaine spencer

karen elaine spencer's artistic practice begins with listening. The listening to impulse, the “something that causes something to happen, the what it is that calls us out towards the what it is we do.” Her approach favours a quiet subjectivity, which meets an external material and immaterial territory. This intersection of what she takes to be their intimate subjective world and the myriad conditions and experiences they encounter as a body navigating space is the starting point for a methodology primarily interested in the performative and taking as its form text, speech, and signs.

spencer engages with a traditional studio practice that moves into the public arena and a public performative practice that moves into the studio. Often, these interventions into “public” space are subtle ritualized gestures, which imperceptibly disturb a given code of conduct. The explicit or implicit body or bodies determine, to a certain extent, how the work is apprehended, as do the stories embedded in the given location, coupled with the present historical moment. Through a meditative methodology of acceptance, a deliberately slowed attention, karen elaine spencer hopes to navigate the gap between the world they encounter and the world they are attempting to construct.

Biography

Originally from British Columbia, karen elaine spencer lives and works in Montreal. She holds a Master’s degree in Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Among their recent projects are a public artwork at Saint-Jean-de-Matha School (2020), a textile mural inspired by Margaret Atwood’s writings for the Consulate General of Canada in New York (2019), and the Quebec Room carpet design for Canada House in London (2015, in collaboration with Nadia Myre). Her work has been exhibited at Verticale – centre d’artistes (Laval, 2023), Admare (Îles-de-la-Madeleine, 2020), DARE-DARE (Montreal, 2018-2019), Galerie Sans Nom (Moncton, 2018), Little Berlin (Philadelphia, 2015), and the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) (Brooklyn, 2014). Spencer’s works are part of several private and public collections. She is the recipient of the Louis Comtois Prize from the Association of Contemporary Art Galleries (AGAC) and the City of Montreal (2022).

Recent exhibitions

2024	Art + Typo, group exhibition, Centre de Design + Vox, Centre de l’image Contemporaine, Montreal, Quebec, Quebec, CA, curators: Robert Fones, Angela Grauerhol
2023	des (in)visibles : une autoethnographie des pratiques, group exhibition, Admare, l’Étang-du-Nord, Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, CA, curator: Christelle Proulx.
2022	walkin’ with cohen, solo exhibition, centre d’art Verticale, Laval, Quebec, CA
2020	right here right now, solo exhibition, Sightings - Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University satellite exhibition, Montreal,Quebec, CA, curator: Julia Eilers Smith.
2018	enveloping self i smell memory, solo exhibition, Galerie Sans Nom, Moncton, New Brunswick. CA
2025	Actions collectives : Regards féministes sur la collection, virtual group exhibition, Musée d’art de Joliette, Joliette, Québec, CA