Artist Feature: Karen Ösp Pálsdóttir
"A shedding of self projections."
Karen Ösp Pálsdóttir uses a unique multi-step process to create her large scale portraits. She first begins with a silent performance with her subject. During this performance Pálsdóttir utilizes her subject as the canvas, painting directly onto their skin, primarily their faces. “The layered paint on my subjects face develops into a mask which represents their projected layered personal history. When they discard their painted mask, it represents a reclamation of the self.” Using documentation from her performances, Pálsdóttir then has a reference to begin her paintings. “I create my paintings by dissecting my images into multiple digital layers, creating an accumulated image over time. The process always begins with a black silhouette of the portrait and finalizes with small white transparent marks.”
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Karen Ösp Pálsdóttir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1992. Currently based in Baltimore MD, Pálsdóttir received her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in December 2013. Pálsdóttir has participated in several group exhibitions in the States as well as a solo exhibition in Iceland.