In this series Stewart explores the notion of what is beneath? What are we hide, and what we only reveal in small fleeting glimpses?
Her upcoming work "An Unfortunate Loss of Perspective" will be showcased at Candice Berman Gallery from 25th September to 29 October 2021. This work investigates how the media influences our mental state, and potentially keeps us in a heightened state of anxiety through focussing on the negative world events. What we end up perceiving as truth – is in fact a number of distortions – which we adopt as the truth.
Palimpset refers to a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing. It came form the time when scrolls were made out of goatskins and were hard to and expensive to come by. The manuscripts were scraped clean and new texts written over the original ones.
This year Stewart stretched herself and collaborated with Cara Saven, the well know bespoke wallpaper designer and supplier. Together we are presenting four maximalist options to add attention to any wall! Look out for the launch in March/April 2021 for these must have designs.
An Early Childhood Development (ECD) school in Tuscany Glen near Blue Downs was been upgraded and transformed during lockdown through a collaborative charity art project involving Bright Sparks Creative Play (Karen Stewart), British designer Morag Myerscough and the Ilukuluku Collective.
An anxiolytic (also anti-panic or anti-anxiety agent) is a medication or other intervention that inhibits anxiety. All of the works in this series are named after the active ingredients in these medicines and substances that induce this effect. There are other substances that can also produce an anxiolytic effect and the work plays with this idea and poses the question of whether art can produce an Anxiolytic Effect.
“How to Build a Lagoon with just a Bottle of Wine” was the theme of the 2019 Lagos Biennial which focused on the intersections of art, architecture, and urbanism. FLYOVERS AND DRIVE-BYS a collaborative project between photographer Ed Suter and collage artist Karen Stewart have taken everyday functional but overlooked spaces around Cape Town, South Africa.
#ArtLadies was presented at Berman Contemporary during women’s month in 2019. In these works Stewart explored the idea of rhythms and cycles by keeping track of her menstrual cycle and creating a dotty drawing to depict the monthly changes.
Big in Japan was a collection showcased at 100% Design in October 2019. The work was displayed with USM Haller collection tubular furniture from Italy. This collection was inspired by Washi paper making from Japan and the positioning of the work with this clean elegant furniture was punchy.
This limited edition (10) artist's book is compilation of botanical curiosities. It was inspired by the extensive curiosity collections of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century. Edition number 5 is for sale, the hand crafted Kiaat book measures 340 x 525cm, the pages are 505 x 330cm and are printed with archival inks on Hannemühle paper and mulberry paper.
Limited edition fine art prints of selected artworks are avaliable. Printed on Hannemühle acid free paper using archival inks guaranteed to last for 100 years.
In response to the current global warming crisis and the drought experienced in Cape Town in 2018, Stewart produced The Weather Girls.
Focusing on the gritty street life of Cape Town her collection Streets Ahead combines science and aesthetics, technique and cartography building on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.