Karis Chambers
Artist Biography & Statement
Karis Chambers is an artist, designer and educator working out of Oklahoma City. They received their BFA from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and went on to receive their MFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo. While exhibiting works across the U.S. and Canada, Karis also spends their time working in many facets of the Oklahoma Arts community through volunteering, advocacy and teaching. Karis believes the artists in Oklahoma are a pure and untapped resource that is truly inspiring as an artist and activist. Chambers works with fellow community creatives to empower and bring together underrepresented Oklahoma artists and makers.
Karis’ work investigates the unusual and emotional nature of the human condition. Exaggerated watercolor paintings represent humanoid anatomy as a species while simultaneously representing flesh as an abstract structure. Confused, saturated color palettes match with odd, fantastical segments of flesh that create a sense of heaviness and confusion. Karis’ dramatizes the abnormalities within bodily form; creating something that becomes alien to us. The works intimately translate humanness into its pure essence, which is strange, galactic and damaged. Chambers explores the lines between reality and abstraction in which human anatomy has become the vehicle. Flesh is familiar, we recognize and empathize with it. We, as viewers, desperately try to relate to the figure as it is reminiscent of us. These works push recognizable form into a place of existence where we no longer understand it as we once had.
@karistheartist
Karis’ work was included in the Art Group Juried Exhibition, April - June 2022, and the Art Group Collaborative Exhibition, July 1 - August 8, 2022. Beyond our exhibition collaborations, the gallery is pleased to have an ongoing relationship with Karis and we feature several of their works for sale on our website.
