7/07/2022 - 8/12/2022

Self Conscious

Work by Karin Wengenroth

Self Conscious, an exhibition of paintings and photographs by Karin Wengenroth, opens July 7 through August 12, 2022, in the main gallery at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. Wengenroth, a 2017 Fine Art BFA graduate of PCA&D, served as the 2021-2022 Fine Art Alumni Artist in Residence at the College. 

 “My approach with this collection was to create a series of paintings focused on my form,” Wengenroth explains in her artist statement. “I decided to contort and crop my images in ways that highlight folds of skin and points of tension, where mass presses on mass. The images I chose to work with convey different emotional states and expressions of body language, enhanced by the colors chosen for the background and title choice. The photographs included are meant to be complementary to the paintings as they have a painterly quality; although, I also intended that they contrast the painted form that I produced by providing a truer image of myself. Both are honest depictions of me through different mediums.”

The dozen works, all produced during Wengenroth’s art residency, push the boundaries of the artist’s ongoing exploration of the association – and dissociation – between body and mind, between the body’s nude form and the mind’s self-image. 

“Wengenthroth’s exhibition is an exploration of the figure and the expressive nature of body language,” says PCA&D Director of Exhibitions Alex Schaufele. “PCA&D is excited to have had the opportunity to host Wengenthroth this past year in our Alumni Artist Residency program and to see this evolution in her work.”

Read an interview with Wengenroth about her work in the exhibition here.