Karen is a Chinese American photographer and curator whose work explores aspects of identity in relation to concepts of grief, loss, and isolation. Through self-portraiture, she works to discover her physical body as it is shaped by race, familial values, sexualization, and her chronic illness, and how these intersecting impressions can affect her body's performance both internally and for an audience.
She was an inaugural Visual Arts Coalition for Equity Fellow in 2021 and has exhibited at the Silver Eye Center for Photography, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media, and SPACE Gallery, among others. She is the recipient of the Keystone Award Honorable Mention for Fellowship 23 through Silver Eye Center for Photography and was most recently a resident at Cornell’s Image Text Workshop in July 2023.
Karen received a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art & Architecture and Economics from the University of Pittsburgh and has completed coursework at the International Center of Photography. She is currently based in Pittsburgh, PA.
