Solo Exhibition by Karen Hochman Brown
Generation(s)
TAG Gallery
May 29 - June 21, 2024
Inspired by the influential women in her life, particularly her grandmother, Viola, and her great-mama Sarah, Karen Hochman Brown’s solo exhibition, Generation(s), reflects a blend of the traditional craftsmanship of Sarah’s crochet and the Hochman Brown’s use of modern technology. The shapes of her childhood have become the core of her art practice, highlighting the deeply personal nature of her creative process. In Generation(s) she melds digital photography, laser-cut elements, and heirloom crocheted pieces, paying homage to the enduring legacy of matriarchal generations past.
Hochman Brown’s artistic process, centered in the realm of technology, showcases her mastery of mathematical algorithms to distort photography and create intricate layers of imagery. Drawing from her great-mama’s repetitive crochet motifs, the exhibition highlights Hochman Brown’s preference for symmetry and the enduring influence of familial bonds. Her mother, Ruelene, passed down her love of botanical oddities, which are pervasive throughout Hochman Brown’s work.
Generation(s) will also take the viewer on a journey through her childhood overnight visits with Bama. Hochman Brown lovingly refurbished the swan-neck chaise lounge where she would sleep. Additional elements in this exploration of her artistic roots include photographs of Bama’s odd collections and self-portraits through the years.
“In many ways these new pieces are the wonderful culmination of Karen’s many years of creating mandala-like work from photos she’s taken in nature — flowers, succulents, etc — digitally processed into the mystical images. By building these new ones around the handiwork of our great-grandmother (Great Mama, we called her), she’s taken this to a magnificent, and magnificently personal, new level. Seeing them today filled my heart with joy and my head with memories as Karen celebrated the generations of women who helped shape her — great-grandmother, grandmother and mother, Ruelene, whose green thumb in her garden inspired Karen’s use of nature in her work.”
Generation(s) opening reception, excerpt
By Stephen Hochman, esteemed journalist and artist’s brother
The Collaboration Across Time
Mixed media works: Digital print on Kinwashi paper and metallic paper, glass cabochons, wood panel box, plexiglass sheet, laser-cut acrylic, adhesives, metal hardware with crocheted cotton doilies created by the artists great-grandmother.
“I have always thought that my love of kaleidoscopes came from the toy I used to play with in my mother’s garden. However, while going through the crocheted linens I inherited from my grandmother’s estate, I have come to realize that the proclivity for symmetry comes from a much deeper place. The doilies, tablecloths, bedspreads, antimacassars, pillows, etc., created by her mother, my great-grandmother, surrounded me beginning with my crib blanket.
I was inspired to work with this long-gone woman whose work is imprinted upon me — to mingle my flower mandals with Great-Mama’s doilies and make something new.“