24 Facts About Karen LaMonte

Karen LaMonte was born on December 14,1967 and is an American artist known for her life-size sculptures in ceramic, bronze, marble, and cast glass.

In 1990, after she graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor in Fine Arts with honors, Karen LaMonte was awarded a fellowship at the Creative Glass Center of America, in Millville, New Jersey.

In 1999, Karen LaMonte won a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, where, in 2000, she created her first major work, Vestige.

Karen LaMonte soon gained critical acclaim; among the accolades she received were The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award in 2001 and the UrbanGlass Award for New Talent in Glass in 2002.

In 2009, Karen LaMonte began a collaboration with the Kholer Artist Center at the Corning Museum of Glass where she was named to the museum's Joint Artist-In-Residence Program.

In 2015, Karen LaMonte received the Masters of the Medium award from the James Renwick Alliance.

Karen LaMonte's works have been exhibited at museums including the Czech Museum of Fine Art in Prague, the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington.

Karen LaMonte's works are included in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Washington DC, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M H de Young Memorial Museum, the Musee des Arts decoratifs, Paris, France, and The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Karen LaMonte looked like that then, but, if she is still alive, it is certain she will not look that way now.

The poignancy of Karen LaMonte's dresses is a product of two modes of change in which we participate as human beings, composed, as we are, of flesh and meaning.

Karen LaMonte then used biometric data from Japanese women to build kimono forms in glass, bronze, rusted iron, and ceramic.

Karen LaMonte entitled this series of sculptures Floating World, a name inspired by both Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and by the storied, arts-themed pleasure quarters of Edo-era Japan.

Karen LaMonte continued her examination of the female form with Nocturnes, a series of works informed by the night-themed paintings of James Abbot McNeill Whistler and by the nocturne musical compositions of John Field and Frederic Chopin.

Karen LaMonte built these sculptures from evening gowns of her own design, then cast them in white bronze, rusted iron, and blue glass.

In 2013, Karen LaMonte spoke with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art about her creative process and research techniques:.

In 2017, Karen LaMonte displayed her large-scale sculpture Cumulus at the Glasstress exhibition, in conjunction with the 2017 Venice Biennale.

Karen LaMonte worked with Tapio Schneider, a climate scientist from the California Institute of Technology, to calculate and model the dimensions needed for Cumulus.

Karen LaMonte used robots to carve a 15-ton block of marble, and then spent four weeks hand-finishing the sculpture.

Cumulus shares a common thread with Karen LaMonte's previous garment-focused work.

Karen LaMonte's first dress sculpture, Vestige, is an influential work of cast glass.

Karen LaMonte's Floating World series evolved from her dress sculptures; these Japan-influenced works depict kimono without their wearers.

Karen LaMonte was inspired to create this series during her research fellowship in Kyoto, which was awarded by the Japan-US Friendship Commission.

Sculptures from Karen LaMonte' Floating World are in the permanent collection of many museums including: Maiko at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Odoriko, Kabuki, and Hanako at the Chazen Museum of Art; and Chado at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Karen LaMonte's Etudes are smaller than the life-sized dress sculptures that first gained her widespread recognition and are crafted from white bronze, rusted iron, cast glass, and other materials.