Karen Johanson
Seattle, WA
Karen Johanson is a Pacific Northwest artist working in cyanotypes and glass
Message
Karen Johanson has evolved as an artist, from an advertising and editorial photographer capturing adventure, excitement and style, back to fine art, her original focus. Her current work showcases the energy of everyday life, utilizing alternative processes that have been around for more than a century. Urban elements including graffiti and architectural details have always captured her attention, and are among the visuals incorporated when she layers images physically and digitally, via photography and glass, to create new perspectives.
Awards and scholarships
Canon Emerging Professional Photographer Award, Santa Fe Workshops, 1996
Exhibitions
- Solo exhibition, Calm, Portland,OR 2026
- Solo exhibition, The Float Shoppe, Portland, OR 2025 – 2026
- Group exhibition, Love is Love, Art at the Cave, Vancouver, WA 2025 – 2026
- Group exhibition, Spectrum Gestalt, bG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2024
- Group exhibition, Members' Show, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA 2024
- Group exhibition, PhinneyWood Art Walk, Seattle, WA, 2023
- Group exhibition, Microsoft Employee Art Exhibition, Redmond, WA, 2023
- Group exhibition, Photo Los Angeles, Los Angeles Makery, Los Angeles, CA, 2023
- Group exhibition, The Small Works Exhibit, The Dalles Art Center, The Dalles, OR, 2023
- Group exhibition, The Former Tomatoes, The Anxious Tomato, Tacoma, WA, 2023
- Group exhibition, Undercurrents, Inner-City Arts, Los Angeles, CA, 2022
- Group exhibition, Building Blocks of Community, Seattle Design Festival, Seattle, WA, 2022
- Group exhibition, 2022 Members' Show, CoCA, Seattle, WA, 2022
- Group exhibition, CoCA ShowWalls, Gary Manuel, Seattle, WA 2022
- Solo exhibition, Art in The Heights, Pine Street Bakery, Hood River, OR, 2021
- Group exhibition, Online Gallery, Tacoma Artists Collective, Tacoma, WA, 2020
- Solo exhibition, Cyanotypes at Art Up, Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery, Seattle, WA, 2020
- Group exhibition, 20/20 Vision Members' Show, CoCA, Seattle, WA, 2020
- Solo exhibition, Art on 6th Avenue, Mary Mart, Tacoma, WA, 2020
- Group exhibition, Honey at Alma Mater, Tacoma, WA, 2019–2020
- Group exhibition, Alternative Visions, LightBox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR, 2019 (curated by Christina Z. Anderson, [catalogue])
- Solo exhibition, New cyanotypes from Karen Johanson, Makeda & Mingus, Seattle, WA, 2019
- Solo exhibition, New work at Make.Shift Market, Bellingham, WA, 2019
- Solo exhibition, Art + beats at Studio A, Seattle, WA, 2009
- Solo exhibition, 619 Western Building, Seattle, WA, 2005
Statement
Karen Johanson is a Pacific Northwest photographer whose work utilizes the alternative process of cyanotypes to showcase imagery that is focused on urban life – everything from graffiti to architectural elements – plus the ocean and mountains. Because cyanotypes rely on a single hue – blue – to relay the specifics of an image, the viewer can focus on abstract elements in a way that moves the mind away from the representational and to the inner world of contemplation.