KAREN FLORES (born 1966, Kalookan City) graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, major in painting, from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City in 1989.
Fruit 39" X 26.5" acrylic on canvas
Despite the select number of group shows she has joined since she was a student, she has managed to maintain a considerable, if not formidable, presence in the Philippine contemporary art scene. Flores gave her first solo exhibition in 1994. She has received several awards and grants. She was artist-in-residence of the Australian Regional Exchange (ARX) held in Perth in 1994. Recently she participated in a conference with four other women visual artists from Singapore and Australia. They have established a collective called SURGE (Southeast Asian Union for Research & Regenerative Exchange) and the initial effort is to establish a web-based forum that will tackle the five Rs - Race, Religion, Region, Rhetoric and Realities. Flores admits that as a painter, she is an impulsive borrower. She is particularly partial to using mid-19th-century Philippine colonial costumes made famous by the most popular artist at that time, Damian Domingo. She likens these beautiful elegant costumes to portable gilded cages that she believes smack of the ridiculous and yet speak as much of our predicament then as our predicament now. Despite the select number of group shows she has joined since she was a student, she has managed to maintain a considerable, if not formidable, presence in the Philippine contemporary art scene. Flores gave her first solo exhibition in 1994. She has received several awards and grants. She was artist-in-residence of the Australian Regional Exchange (ARX) held in Perth in 1994. Recently she participated in a conference with four other women visual artists from Singapore and Australia. They have established a collective called SURGE (Southeast Asian Union for Research & Regenerative Exchange) and the initial effort is to establish a web-based forum that will tackle the five R's - Race, Religion, Region, Rhetoric and Realities. Flores admits that as a painter, she is an impulsive borrower. She is particularly partial to using mid-19th-century Philippine colonial costumes made famous by the most popular artist at that time, Damian Domingo. She likens these beautiful elegant costumes to portable gilded cages that she believes smack of the ridiculous and yet speak as much of our predicament then as our predicament now.