CELEBRATING NATURE
An Exhibition Featuring Works by
Mixed-Media Artist Karen Steen
Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 21, 2024, 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
SPARC Centre Gallery
Inspired by a natural environment under threat, Steen says she views her vibrant, buoyant works “as ecosystems, a group of diverse elements and forces that have settled into a balanced and dynamic system.” These are interpreted through an amalgamation of painting, drawing, and paper shapes laser-cut from images of life forms in the natural world. “I attempt to imbue my pieces with qualities of the biological world: diversity, repetition, intricacy, rhythm, balance and interconnection,” she states.
Steen’s interest in nature’s diverse ecosystems began in a childhood fascination with tidepools—“small worlds filled with life.” In addition to academic degrees from ArtCenter College of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Steen, based in Pasadena and a South Pasadena native,
is a certified California Naturalist.
Celebrating Nature runs through November 9, 2024.
SPARC Centre Gallery
1000 Fremont Ave., Suite 120
South Pasadena, CA 91030
(The entrance is off the parking lot at the rear of
the Fremont Centre on El Centro Ave.)
Gallery hours will vary after the opening.
To schedule visits on other dates during the run of the show, contact curator Blue Trimarchi at (626) 676-4195.
Admission is free.
The exhibit features the 2024 photographic art competition student finalists' photographs. Thirty-one student finalists were selected to participate in the exhibition. Their work encompasses the categories of: Places, People, Things and Abstracts.
The William G. Ericson Foundation, in partnership with the Pasadena City College Foundation, sponsored the competition with public high schools in the Pasadena Area Community College District to provide scholarship awards to meritorious participants. Photographer, William “Bill” Ericson, was the distinguished publisher of the South Pasadena Review (1947-2012), a weekly community newspaper, and The Quarterly Magazine (1978-2012), an upscale lifestyle magazine
in the San Gabriel Valley.
Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 21st
3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
SPARC Gallery @
the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce
1121 Mission St.
South Pasadena, CA 91030
The exhibit runs through November 2nd.
Gallery hours will vary after the opening.
To schedule visits on other dates during the run of the show, contact the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce
at (626) 441-2339. Admission is free.