Home page of Canadian artist Karen Kulyk

PROFILE

After graduating in 1973 with an Honours BFA from York University, Karen Kulyk established and successfully ran Seedlings, a Toronto gallery for emerging artists while continuing her own studio work. Then in 1975, on joining the Marianne Friedland Gallery, she embarked on an eventful life of painting and exhibiting in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Asia, Scandinavia, East and West Europe, as well as North and South America.

In 1983 Kulyk was awarded the Grollo d’Oro for her unique use of colour at the Treviso International Art Competition and a Sheila-Hugh Mackay Foundation Grant in 1997. During her long career she has been appointed Artist in Residence at universities and museums around the world, and received Fellowships at Winter’s College, York University and Grey College, Durham University, England.

Karen Kulyk is the first Canadian invited to exhibit solo at the National Gallery of Thailand, Festival Canada, Hong Kong and the Chicago International Art Fair. Over the past forty years she has also exhibited in France, England, the United States, Bermuda and Mexico and nationally with the Art Gallery of Ontario, Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Carleton University in Ottawa, Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery and the Glenbow in Calgary.

Kulyk’s work hangs privately as far away as South Africa and Japan and is included in many museum and corporate collections around the world.

Lemon Garden, Chernia, Isle of Elba, 2021

28"x22"

Oil on Linen

Over the last decade I have pursued an interest in the Italian Garden. While hiking the landscapes of Northern and Central Italy I recorded a fascinating array of outside spaces some very private, all designed for visual pleasure.

Their shared characteristics of symmetry, repetitive harmony, graceful contrasting verdant palettes, strong sculpted accents and gently orchestrated water features combine to provide a cooling sanctuary from the intense heat of the Italian summer.