Biography
Karen Cullinan, born in 1968, was passionate about art from an early age. During her early career, Karen worked for various design companies, gaining skills in textiles, ceramics and graphic design. Cullinan has completed numerous public commissions nationally and internationally that are characteristically large-scale and made from mixed media. In 1996, she opened her own art company which operated for 24 years, and was successful in the creation of national and international commissioned artworks. In 2020, Karen opened the Artyli Gallery. Karen has been involved in a number of exhibitions and has worked internationally on various collections. Karen has been published in ‘South African Art and Artists’, and she has taught public workshops on abstract painting and authentic creativity. During her career, Karen has successfully worked in the intersecting space of business and art. She currently resides in Johannesburg.
Education
After completing her matric, Karen studied Fine Arts at Wits Technikon (1988), majoring in painting, where she won the Radley and Ashley Best Painters Award and a bursary award. In 1994 Karen obtained a certificate from Vall Triangle in Ceramic Technology. In 2013, she returned to the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to complete her BTek Honours in Visual Arts, graduating in 2014. Karen has also completed certificate courses in Graphic Design, as well as being selected and involved with the Goldman Saachs 10 000 Woman mini MBA .
Subject Matter
The artworks of Karen Cullinan are phenomenological in nature, as she probes at time bound subjective human experience that carries philosophical implications of the human condition, that when deconstructed, could even possibly allude to subtle universal truths. Cullinan’s artistic practice centres varied elements that form at first a complex canvas and secondly offers commentary on a layered ontology that is shaped by time, through time. Cullinan’s artworks serve as a reminder that despite distortion and fragmentation, there is wholeness – capturing the essence of the aphorism that it is within the cracks that there is gold, that there is light that radiates through. As life is a process toward an end, Cullinan reflects on creativity as a guided yet unguided existential egress that grants a closeness to Spirit, to embodied others and to the self.
Exhibition History
1988 – Group Exhibition, Wits Tech, Johannesburg
1992 – Group Exhibition, Parktown, Johannesburg
2014 – ‘Some Went Made, Some Ran Away’, group exhibition, Fada Gallery , University of Johannesburg
2015 – “Pulling Roots ” Group Exhibition , Johannesburg
2015 – “Essence” Group Exhibition, Henry George Gallery, Johannesburg
2016 – “The Storr Room” Group Exhibition, Johannesburg
2020 – Group Exhibition, Hi Hotel, Johannesburg
2020 – Reset – Artyli Gallery, Johannesburg
2020 – Umzanzi Umoyo, Artyli Gallery, Johannesburg
2020 – The Emergence Collection ( online )
2021 – Africonic , Artyli Gallery, Johannesburg
2021 – Captcha Colour , Artyli Gallery, Johannesburg
2023 – Herstory, Artyli Gallery, Johannesburg
