Karen Loader is a professional artist living and working in London. She graduated with an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School in 2017. She was subsequently shortlisted for the ARTIQ/Herbert Smith Freehills Graduate Art Prize in 2017 and the Collyer Bristow Graduate Award in 2018 and again in 2019. In 2025 her drawing 'Contrapuntal 8' was shortlisted for the Jackson's Art Prize and in 2022 her drawing 'Slippage 4' was shortlisted for The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize. Solo shows include 'this, that & the other' at Saturation Point in 2023, 'Backtrack' at Candid Courtyard Gallery in 2023, 'Things Are Not Always What They Seem' at Candid Gallery in 2019 & 'Altered States' at Highgate Galley in 2017. Her installation 'KLAW II' was selected for the Bow Arts exhibition Hereafter in 2017 & the installation 'Interval' was included in The Collyer Bristow Exceptional exhibition in 2018 . Previously she received a first class BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art from the University of East London in 1999 and since then has taken part in numerous group shows and art fairs. Her work is held in private and corporate collections in the UK, Europe and the USA.
SPRING at the Holland Park Cafe
9 April to 25 May 2025. London W8 6LU
An exhibition showcasing artists Juan Bolivar, Karen Loader & Katrina Blannin
curated by Justin Hibbs
"As the Daisy Green Collection continues its rotation of exhibitions that reflect the changing seasons, we are delighted to welcome ‘Spring’ at the Holland Park Cafe through the primary lens of colour and form. Featuring three artists who each share a systematic and playful approach to painting, utilising a language of geometric shapes, colour, and pattern. Their works are grounded in the concept of an 'internal logic’ and an engagement with the ongoing legacies of abstraction, not so much exercises in formal balance but more an opportunity to generate unexpected clashes, twists and turns that confound expectation."(Justin Hibbs)
S L U I C E – Seyðisfjörður 2025 (World Building) 23-25 May 2025
Postcards for Seyðisfjörður, Iceland
Postcards reflect cultural and interactional enactments of contemporary globalisation, the transient mementos of travel.
The project was influenced by Dieter Roth, who was resident in that town, and the work he did with fellow international artists amending and exchanging postcards.
H_A_R_D_P_A_I_N_T_I_N_G asked artists to obverse the once common practice of sending a postcard from a place visited - "send a “painted” postcard of Seyðisfjörður to Seyðisfjörður". A postcard of itself to itself but altered / adjusted / intervened by artists who may not have travelled to Seyðisfjörður before.
This mail art project featuring over 100 artists was in collaboration with Sluice and LungA School. Completed postcards were posted to LungA school in Seyðisfjörður where they were collated and exhibited in an exhibition between 22 - 25 May 2025.
Ghost by Karen Loader
For this project, I wanted to respond to the idea of sending postcards as mementos of place and experience and how we might view them differently in the future. I have always been interested in how we perceive our surroundings, both physically and psychologically. A place is never just its physical form, but the conversation between what was, what is and who we were when we first committed it to memory. Places are not reciprocal. They do not remember us but we do remember them, carrying their earlier iterations within us. Sometimes we long for the unchanged, the silhouette of the mountain or the ancient oak tree still standing. Sometimes, we search for the differences, proof that nothing stands still but is in a state of perpetual flux. I started by scanning the original postcard, enlarging it slightly and printing it out on tracing paper which I then stuck over the top of the original. This created a ghost-like effect making it harder to focus on and define the starting point. I coloured the darker parts of the landscape with red pencil emphasising those areas where the snow had melted or had not completely covered the rocks beneath. The overall effect was eerie with a sense of foreboding and it made me think about how we often superimpose our memories upon the present, reviving ghosts of our former experiences.
ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries London, November 2024
featuring Matrix 2 & 3 (2023)
acrylic on wooden panels, 25 x 20 cm
selected by Will Gompertz
focus: united kingdom
Non Sofia Gallery & Archive, Sofia, Bulgaria, September 2024
Geometric abstraction exhibition of unframed works on paper
Curated by Patrick Morrissey & Hanz Hancock of Saturation Point
in collaboration with Georgi Dimitrov of Non Sofia Gallery
Artists: Hanz Hancock, Ian Boutell, Jeremy Morgan, Karen Loader, Mary Yacoob,
Patrick Morrissey, Patrick O'Donnell, Philip Cole, Stig Evans & Tom Hackney
This exhibition included some of my drawings from the Oscillate series.
“Oscillate - to move repeatedly from side to side or up and down between two points, or to vary between two states or amounts, or feelings or opinions.” (Cambridge Dictionary)
The definition above demonstrates how this can refer to physical movement or to psychological states. For many years now, my work has been exploring ideas around rhythm and movement and how this relates to space and place, the internal and the external. Rhythm starts with the body – breathing, pulsing, beating. Listening to one’s own body is how we measure external rhythms. It is also how we perceive our immediate environment.
Debut::Inaugural Open
& Gallery, Edinburgh, April 2024
featuring Matrix 3 (2023), acrylic on wooden panel, 25 x 20 cm
Exhibiting artists:
Alan Shipway, Alastair Gordon, Alejandro Javaloyas, Anzhelika Lebedeva, Árpád Forgó, Beth Shapeero, Charlott Rodgers, Chris Sleath, Cristina Fontsare, David Lemm, Dennis Konijnenburg, Eleanor Wood, Gwenllian Vaughan, Hildegard Pax, Joanna Kessel, Jonathan Phillips, Josefina Isaza, Karen Loader, Karen Stamper, Katharine Le Hardy, Kathryn Hanna, Laurien Renckens, Leonieke Kormelink, Louisa Boyd, Michele Bianco, Nina Gerada, Paul Snell, Peter Bingham, Rachel Peters, Richard Perry, Rick Johns, Rosalind Lawless, Shawn Stipling, Silvia De Marchi, Stephan Ehrenhofer, Susan Phillips, Susan Simonini and Tom Henderson.
The artists share a common interest for exploring material, light, and colour, as well as a profound appreciation for either the natural world or the urban environment. The exhibition presents a diverse showcase of artworks, incorporating ceramics, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, glass, drawing, printmaking and photography.
Matrix 1-4, 2023 - 25 x 20 cm each
Play it Again, 2023 - 100 x 110 cm
Little Fictions & Melancholy Morning, 2023
Melancholy Morning & Interloper, 2023
Arc 1 & 2, 2023 - 35.5 x 27 cm
Little Fictions (detail), 2023
Little Fictions, 2023 - 21 panels 25 x 20 cm each
Warm Embrace & Little Fictions, 2023
this, that & the other - solo show
Sunday Salon 28 at Saturation Point,
Deptford, October 2023
www.saturationpoint.org.uk
"Using a single motif is similar to the use of a symbol to express multiple ideas or concepts and its simplicity belies its underlying complexity. In this body of work, the motif acts as a metaphor for space and direction and how we locate ourselves within our environment. The motif has two faces or sides – front & back – which can be flipped to create different rhythmic variations. The repetition and the placement of the motif, one after another, allows the work to be extended in space but viewed in real time. The muted colour palette is a subjective response to observations and experiences of the built environment, but it also reflects seasonal and diurnal changes that affect how we all feel about different spaces at different times and how this generates a unique experience of place."
Backtrack
Candid Courtyard Gallery
London, January 2023
"Reducing things down to their essence has always been one of my motivating factors. I am interested in how I can simplify my experiences whilst at the same time expressing the complexities of human perception. Having lived in London for over 30 years, my work inevitably responds to the built environment but it also encompasses how we perceive space by moving through it and how this informs our interpretation of place. I believe that our environment has a significant impact on our subconscious, contributing to our emotions and perceptions by the way in which we interact with the spatial geometries around us. This includes how our bodies perceive space in a sensory way through rhythm and movement, noticing phenomena such as light and temperature and sensing the proximity or distance of things."
In 2023 I was commissioned by Artiq to make some collages for Raffles London at The OWO.
The collages were made using cut out shapes of graphite powder rubbed onto paper and were originally inspired by my MA installation at City & Guilds of London Art School. Subsequent additions were more directly influenced by the architectural features in The OWO which I was lucky enough to visit during its extensive renovations.
Built on the historic royal site of Whitehall Palace, and witness to world-shaping events of the 20th Century, the rebranded Old War Office (The OWO) is the first UK home for global luxury hotelier Raffles.
The Artiq team designed, procured and curated an art collection for the guest rooms, heritage suites and corridors.
My work hangs in some of the corner suites and in the corridors.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
2025
Spring at the Holland Park Cafe, Daisy Green Collection, London
Postcards for Seyðisfjörður - SLUICE Seyðisfjörður 2025 (World Building), Iceland
Jackson's Art Prize, Bankside Gallery, London
2024
SFSA Painting Open, No Format Gallery, London
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
Focus UK: Non Sofia Gallery & Archive, Sofia, Bulgaria
Debut :: Inaugural Open, &gallery, Edinburgh
Affordable Art Fair Battersea, London
Women’s Art Exhibition, Candid Arts, London
2023
This, That & The Other – Solo show - Sunday Salon at Saturation Point, London
Commission for Raffles London at the OWO
Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, Somerset
SFSA Drawing Open, No Format Gallery, London
Spring Exhibition, Darl-e & the Bear, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Backtrack - Solo show - Candid Courtyard Gallery, London
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, ArtHouse Jersey
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Willis Museum & Sainsbury Gallery, Basingstoke
2022
Winter Exhibition, Darl-e & the Bear, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, London
Atelier Open, Atelier by the Sea, Brighton
Spring Salon, Candid Arts, London
Studio & Staff Show, Candid Arts, London
2021
Epox Contemporary – online feature of recent work
2020
Materialisation of the New, Darl-e and the Bear, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Bear Stories, Darl-e and the Bear, online feature of “Between States”
2019
Exceptional, The Collyer Bristow Graduate Award, London
Perfect Imperfect, Take Courage Gallery, London
Things are Not Always What They Seem - Solo show - Candid Arts, London
2018
Exceptional, The Collyer Bristow Graduate Award, London
Mixed Media Exhibition, Candid Arts, London
2017
Hereafter, Bow Arts, Rum Factory, London
The Graduate Art Prize, ARTIQ / Herbert Smith Freehills, London
MA Fine Art Show, City & Guilds of London Art School, London
Altered States - Solo show - Highgate Gallery at HLSI, London
Interim Show, City & Guilds of London Art School, London
2016
Angel Christmas Fair, Candid Arts, London
Monopoles, Ugly Duck, London
CGP Annual Open Exhibition, London
Summer Salon, Candid Arts, London
2015
Maverick Expo - The Bargehouse, London
Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair, London
CGP Annual Open Exhibition, London
The Watch House – London
AWARDS / PRIZES:
2025 - Shortlisted for Jackson’s Art Prize
2024 - Shortlisted for ING Discerning Eye Exhibition Prize
2023 - Shortlisted for The Wells Art Contemporary Exhibition Prize
2022 - Shortlisted for The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize
2019 - Shortlisted for The Collyer Bristow Graduate Art Award
2018 - Shortlisted for The Collyer Bristow Graduate Art Award
2017 - Shortlisted for The ARTIQ/Herbert Smith Freehills Graduate Art Prize
COMMISSIONS / SALES / RENTALS:
2020-present - Represented by Darl-e and the Bear
2016-present - Represented by ARTIQ
2018-present - Represented by Art in Offices
