Whether working in video, on fabric, or with a photographic palette, Karen Hochman Brown is an artistic visionary. Her work is often hypnotic, using energetic forms and lush digital constructs. Mixing line, shape, and movement, whether she is working in time-based video or with fabric hangings that feature overstitching, her work evokes sensations of mystery and magnetism, pulling the viewer into a compelling vortex of color, motion, light, and texture.
The artist attests that she is in inspired by the work of artists such as Hilma auf Klimp, Victor Vasserely, Agnes Pelton, and Ruth Asawa as well as artists specializing in Geometric Abstraction. “Specifically for my Threads projects, I am inspired by my the women in my family who turned yarn and thread into physical creations. Starting with my great-grandmother who worked with embroidery and crochet as a trade in the early 1900s in New York City, I remember being most intrigued by the crochet work which is constructed of small thread mandalas placed in grid patterns to create larger patterns. The work was meticulous and intricate. That has carried over into my love of the geometric form. But all the women in my life (including me growing up) worked with thread one way or another, whether through sewing, crocheting, weaving, knitting, embroidery, crewel work or more.”
She explains that her work is constantly evolving “even as I circle back to older work to make it new and exciting.” She relates that she “started out as a serious artist making custom tallit (Jewish Prayer Shawls) using digitally created designs, mainly fractal work, with the designs printed on silk and fine tailoring finish work.”
That work grew as the software she was working with improved, and she began to incorporate photographs into the digital process. This led to “ten years making kaleidoscopic mandalas from [what were primarily] photographs of flowers. All the while I was developing an arsenal of virtual paint brushes designed to mimic thread-work using a different software.”
According to Hochman Brown, that is what is on view in her current work, as well as a transition from work that she made twenty years ago currently being “reborn.”
What has changed the most for her over time is her growth from doing work for herself to putting that work out into the world in galleries, transitioning from craft into art.
She notes that she is “first and foremost a digital artist. I love to get lost inside the swiftness of the computer as well as the ability to create many versions and curate down to the best versions. I love the logic of digital work. There is something about digital work, at least for me, that verges on collaboration. My work is nothing without the programers who built the software I use,” she stresses. “As their code grows, my capabilities grow as well. But it is hard to exhibit digital work in a 3D world. So I return to working with thread to bring new forms to life.”
Her current exhibition, on view now through May 30th at Diversions Fine Arts in Manhattan Beach is a body of work that she created in only a few months time. After this impressive feat, she is taking time to “learn how to use Mid-Journey or some other AI visual program to transform my artwork to a different level. I have seen some of my fellow LA artists using AI programs to advance their artwork in spectacular new ways. This is not making your dog look like a Picasso, but a workspace that only references my own work, transforming it in ways I have yet to imagine.”
What she most wants our readers to know about her work is the “links between the early garment industry and computers. The first computers were looms that used punchcards to control the heddles to create intricate jacquard patterns and brocades. I want them to see the threads between them, through the handwork of the women who raised me, into my interpretations in pixels,” she stresses. Secondarily, she wants readers to be aware that her work is “for sale,” she laughs.
Beyond her current exhibition at Diversions Fine Arts, she will be presenting a “solo exhibition at Gallery 825 in September, where I will be showing artwork that melds my flower mandala work printed on Japanese Kinwashi paper, combined with my great-grandmother’s doilies and laser cut decorative elements.”
- Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist and by Davis