BIOGRAPHY

Originally from Cambridge, Ontario, Karen Bagayawa graduated with her B.F.A from Queen’s University in 1998.  Her interest in traveling took her to Northern Japan to teach Kindergarten.  During her five year stay, she participated in group exhibitions at The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Sacramento Fine Arts Center, New York’s Limner Gallery and had solo exhibitions at Gallery La Vie in Morioka.  In 2004, she returned to Canada and enrolled in the Advanced Textile Arts Certificate Program at Capilano College.  Upon graduating, she participated in group exhibitions at Vancouver’s Jacana Contemporary Art Gallery, The Craft House - Granville Island and had her first solo exhibition in Canada at The Port Moody Art Center in 2005.  Karen has been working on her original cracked fabric or ‘skins’ for over twenty years and her work belongs in collections throughout Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Luxembourg, Australia, Shanghai, France and Italy.  In 2011, she was awarded the Eastside Culture Crawl Commission where seven paintings were created for the Gold Sponsors of the popular Eastside Culture Crawl in Vancouver.  Karen currently resides in Coquitlam with her husband Stephen and their three children - Hanna, Jacob and Sienna, her two cats - Ash and Jasper and a lovebird named Henry where she is strongly influenced by her natural surroundings.  She is currently represented by The UKAMA Contemporary Art Gallery on Granville Island and ART JUNCTION Art Gallery in Whistler.