Karen Lederer’s mixed-media work combines masterful techniques in printmaking with drawing and painting in acrylic and oil. Her awards include the SIP Award from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, the Keyholder Residency Program at the Lower East Side Printshop, and the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program. Born and raised in Manhattan, Lederer lives and works in Brooklyn.
Lederer’s debut at Field Projects, Hands On, invoked the historic Women’s March that took place in New York City, Washington, D.C., and around the world following the inauguration of President Trump. In some of her most poignant works, Lederer captured the days leading up to the march, with the artist in the cut-and-paste process of building her own signs of protest. Other works on display celebrated the everyday currencies—publications, consumer objects, edibles and detritus—of the artist’s studio life. In the interview, Lederer and I talk about self-portraiture, Instagram, feminism, and pop culture.
Jen Schwarting: In your solo exhibition, Hands On, you included a few self-portraits. I was interested to learn that self-portraiture is a new territory for you. How did this body of work come to be, and what was important about representing your own self-image?
Karen Lederer: I had studio visits a while back with my friend, painter Hilary Doyle. At the end of each of our visits, we asked one another about the next challenge in our work. She said I should try making a portrait because my paintings revealed bits of the figure, like the feet or hands, but never the face. Many of these paintings featured a tight, directed first person point-of-view similar to an Instagram photo. The shift to depicting more of the figure moved the paintings into a third person perspective. Here the figure, at the moment me, is revealed more completely. It seemed important to start my relationship to the figure by depicting my- self. I always saw the hands in my paintings as my hands, and the objects in my paintings often relate back to things I like or have around the studio. In that way, the paintings have always been self-portraits. Only now I am presenting that fact more clearly.
JS: The moment I stepped into the exhibition, I was struck by your full self-portrait hanging on the back wall. In it, you depict yourself reading an Elena Ferrante paperback, the cover of which is prominently and clearly reproduced. The book is an Italian translation, and one in a series by Ferrante that is enormously popular. When I saw it, the gallery assistant was sitting at the desk—in front of your painting— reading the same book. Can you talk about the novel’s significance and your decision to represent it?
KF: The product placement in the paintings often seems to have an effect on the people around them. I sold a painting of a fish tank with a La Croix seltzer can outside of it. The painting’s owner started to drink La Croix after that. Needless to say I was delighted when I saw the gallery assistant reading the book. I tore through Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels. They tell the story of two women from childhood to old age. I had never read such an epic story about women from the perspective of a female character written by a female author. I saw myself reflected in the desires and setbacks of the characters. Elena Ferrante’s personal biography also contributes to the meaning of the painting. Like Hillary Clinton, she was one of the most notable women of 2016. She was also betrayed by a man who, against her will, revealed her true identity.
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Read the full interview at fieldprojectsgallery.com
