Karen Logan (she/her) is an artist and creative practitioner based at Haarlem Artspace, a rural contemporary studio in Derbyshire. Karen holds an AHRC funded MA in Textiles from Goldsmiths University of London. Her practice includes hand stitch, hand knit, drawing, watercolour, walking and foraging. Recent freelance work includes developing and delivering drawing activities for Derby QUAD in celebration of The Big Draw Festival and supporting young people participating in the Midlands Maker Challenge at The Museum of Making in Derby.
Residencies include the Virtual Residency at Haarlem Artspace (2020), Summer Lodge at Nottingham Trent University (2019) and (aa2a) Artists Access to Art Colleges at Derby University (2018-19).
Karen runs and facilitates Draw Derby: a free monthly gathering for anyone who wants to draw (and draw together) in Derby city centre.
Education
2003 MA Textiles (Distinction), Goldsmiths, University of London, received an AHRC award
Photography, installation, making: notions of home and the suburban landscape beyond. Studied with the aid of an Arts and Humanities Research Council Award. Thesis: Home and the Heart of the Wood: An Aesthetic of Suspense.
1993 BA (Hons) Textiles (First Class Honours), The University Of Derby
Specialised in printed textiles. Thesis: Geo-synthetics in Land Management.
1990 BTEC Diploma in Art and Design (Merit), Epping Forest College, Essex
Specialised in textiles.
Exhibitions/Events (selected)
2022 UN VEIL, Haarlem Gallery, Wirksworth
2021 Makers Market, Haarlem Gallery, Wirksworth
2020 Print Fair 2020, Nottingham Contemporary
2019 Winter Exhibition, Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth
2019 Wirksworth Festival, Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth
2019 In Common, aa2a Residency Exhibition, University of Derby
2018 Winter Exhibition, Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth
2018 Rituals and Rites, Artcore Gallery, Derby
2016 We Are Many Conference, Solihull
2016 Like-Letters, Sheffield Institute of Arts, Sheffield
2015 Leytonstone Arts Trail, London
2014 Leytonstone Arts Trail, London
2012 Woolgather Art Prize 2012, Leeds
2012 Pecha Kucha Night Wakefield #5, The Hepworth Wakefield
2011 Allotment Soup, Sheffield
2011 Assembly 11, Bloc Projects, Sheffield
2011 Interior Lightning, Navigation Warehouse, Wakefield Artwalk
2011 Pecha Kucha Night Wakefield #3, The Hepworth Wakefield
2010 The Market Estate Project, N7, London
Book
2021 Work featured in Element by Catherine Rogers, published by Haarlem Artspace
Online Features
2020 Meet the Artist: Karen Logan, Contemporary Visual Arts Network - East Midlands
Residencies
2020 Virtual Residency, Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth
Selected artists at Haarlem Artspace spent a week together exploring new processes and ideas, checking in with twice daily Zoom sharings. Daily, I walked a 3 mile circular route around Haarlem, consciously tuning into the landscape and experience of walking. Photographs, listening circle drawings and a herbal remedy (made with berries gathered as I walked) were outcomes from the Virtual Residency.
2019 Summer Lodge, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham
Like many, I hold the beginnings of ideas/unresolved work/instinctual work as thoughts and objects. Summer Lodge provided the perfect opportunity to sit with and allow space for these ideas to be. A sculptural piece emerged, frustrating and surprising, leading to more ideas...
2018-2019 Artists Access to Art Colleges (aa2a), Derby University, Derby
Revisited linocut for the first time in 30 years and printed using a Victorian Albion press and etching press in the printmaking studio. The project involved drawing, printmaking, painting, walking, writing, stitching and taking beginners courses in hedge laying and dry stone walling. Memories of being read Alison Uttley fairytales as a child and visits to her farm birthplace during the project informed the residency.
2012 Sites in Sight, The Art House, Wakefield
Residency exploring friendship in the Warwick Estate, Knottingly. Making stuff, drinking tea, eating homemade cake, talking and sharing together. Awarded additional funding by the NHS as the project enhanced participants mental wellbeing.
Creative Practitioner (selected)
2022-ongoing Draw Derby, Market Place Derby
Draw Derby is a free monthly gathering for anyone who wants to draw in the city centre. Draw Derby creates a space to inhabit the city in a quietly powerful way, to be still, observe and draw together, meeting likeminded others in the process. We meet by the Waterfall sculpture in the Market Place at 10.30am on the last Saturday of the month.
2022 Everybody Draw, QUAD, Derby
All-day drop-in drawing event in celebration of The Big Draw Festival. Inspired by QUAD and the historic Market Place, participants created a huge communal drawing, collaborating, communicating and sharing the beauty and wonder of the everyday.
2022 Draw Together, GoldsQUAD, QUAD, Derby
Series of playful drawing workshops for participants aged 50+ exploring line, tone, form, colour and scale. We folded paper to make sketchbooks, created drawing tools with natural materials and experimented with drawing media.
2021-ongoing Midlands Maker Challenge - mentor, Museum of Making, Derby
'Critical friend' supporting young people participating in the Midlands Maker Challenge. The challenge encourages an open and exploratory mindset in responding to a Climate (in)Action brief, inspired by the Midlands rich manufacturing heritage.
2021 KidsQUAD, QUAD, Derby
Workshop for 7-11 year olds focusing on tonal qualities in photography and drawing inspired by the Brian Griffin, Black Country Dada 1969-1990 exhibition.
2021 QUAD Participate, Derby
Workshops for year 11 students focusing on self portraits, inspired by Imran Qureshi's exhibition at QUAD.
2020 #ThisIsDerby, QUAD, Derby
Devised and planned projects for a Junior School and SEND 6th Form focusing on wellbeing and environmental themes. Projects cancelled because of coronavirus.
2019 Beam, Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, Milford
Commissioned to create and deliver a drop-in activity celebrating Milford's history during the Putting the Mill back into Milford event. We focused on drawing and creating natural dyes using the flora surrounding Holy Trinity Church.
2019 Q Club, QUAD, Derby
Created workshops for children and young people with additional support needs focusing on screen print and sculpture.
2019 Harewood House, Leeds
Devised self-led activities for families and school groups and KS1/2 workshops in response to the exhibition Useful/Beautiful: Why Craft Matters.
2010-2017 The Hepworth, Wakefield
2010-2017 The Hepworth, Wakefield
Drop-ins, workshops and courses for families, young people and schools, working solo and in collaboration in response to the collections and temporary exhibitions, within budget and to deadline. Hepworth Wakefield won Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2017.
2016 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
2015 Agder Folkehøgskole, Søgne, Norway
2016 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
Collaborated with the DLWP in delivering a weekend of experimental drawing activities exploring science, technology, engineering, art and maths for the STEAM Powered Big Draw Festival. Led a series of workshops for 7-11 year olds in response to exhibitions by Fiona Banner: Bouys Boys and Peter Blake: Alphabets, Letters and Numbers.
2015 Agder Folkehøgskole, Søgne, Norway
Lectures on walking and art, plus creative workshops with impromptu exhibition in the art department at the folk school.
Ways of Looking: A Future Youth Inspired art project. Three-day project for young people responding to the art and architecture of Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery.
2005-2014 The Building Exploratory, London
Workshops for schools and families facilitating opportunities to discover the secrets of their local area and gain a better understanding of the buildings and spaces surrounding them.
2007-2011 Creative Partnerships, UK
Projects involved nursery, primary and secondary schools encouraging exploration of ideas through personal responses and interpretations. Sessions included movement, drawing, collage, sculpture, language, drama, INSET's, gallery visits and working alongside parents in school.
2005-2009 Tate Britain, London
Engaged audiences in creative processes, assisting nursery, primary, family and further education groups in exploring the galleries collections and creating art. This included leading INSET days and working on VerbalEyes, an art and literacy project in primary schools.
Also worked as artist and creative practitioner in London at The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Whitechapel Art Gallery, The October Gallery, The Foundling Museum, The Geffrye Museum, [space] Studios and The Drawing Room.
