BOSTON, MA - Presented by Child's Gallery, Karen Lee Sobol's recent series ‘Goddesses’ and ‘Nobody’s Nomads’ are viewable online in an Artsy Exhibition. Sobol's work takes the viewer on a journey across land and sea, into a world of chaotic beauty. The series tell a story of struggle, but Sobol’s dazzling iridescent palette encourages us to recall there is hope to sustain life on our fragile planet.
CAMBRIDGE, MA - Karen Lee Sobol chronicled her experience with cancer and beyond in an art exhibition at Gallery 1832, a subset of MIT's LabCentral. With drawings, paintings, prints, and reliefs from 1984 through 2023, Uncommon Canvas wove a visual narrative across decades. A public event was held on February 29, 2024. Attendees described the occasion as organic, engaging, profoundly enriching, and deeply moving.
WESTPORT, MA - Jeffrey Westport Boutique hosted Seaside Seasons, a collection
of Karen Lee Sobol's mixed media paintings.
MADRID, SPAIN - As part of the 11th International Workshop for Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia (IWWM11), Karen Lee Sobol honored the 10th anniversary of her inspiring memoir Twelve Weeks: An Artist's Story of Cancer, Healing, and Hope. The anniversary was a timely one as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for resilience in times of crisis. Sobol’s personal experience and art practice provide guidance for this resilience. Her artworks featured in her memoir chronicle the range of emotions and experiences through a tumultuous journey, landing with a vibrant energy and sense of optimism.
BOSTON, MA - In this group exhibition at Childs Gallery, Karen Lee Sobol explores the breadth of the animal kingdom alongside fellow artists working in mixed media, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculpture. Sobol's featured work in mixed media on canvas is Nobody's Nomads, lagoon medusa (2022, 34 x 72"). A percentage of the proceeds from Beauty in the Beasts will benefit the MSPCA (Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). The organization tirelessly advocates for the welfare of animals and preserves the human-animal bond. This exhibit is located at 168 Newbury Street now through September 10th, 2022.
BOSTON, MA - Fort Point Arts Community Gallery/UMASS Boston. Guest speakers Karen Lee Sobol, Annie Zeybekoglu, and J. Andrés Ballesteros discuss using Art for Science Communication at the Messaging Nature Exhibit, located at 300 Summer Street.
BOSTON, MA - Fort Point Arts Community Gallery. In this exhibition, artists Karen Lee Sobol, Sara Zielinksi, and Annie Zeybekoglu explore and expand values in work focused on communication and community. Their narrative addresses three concerns: what is important to communicate, and how they do it; how they see individual and collective roles and responsibilities in society; and how their art contributes to conversations around global issues like social alienation, community, and environmental health and stewardship.
Above all, Karen Lee intends for the optimism behind the exhibition to shine into 2022, as she discusses in her interview in the Beacon Hill Times.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - Old City Jewish Art Center. Sobol participated in a program known as "Brushes with Cancer," in which artists are paired with cancer patients in an effort to evoke compassion through art. Inspired by a woman of superhuman will, Sobol created the energetic and anatomical diptych, I'm complicated. Sobol credits empathy and awe as the forces behind the portraits, which appeared fully-formed in the artist's mind after her first Zoom meeting with her partner.
BOSTON, MA - Childs Gallery exhibition featuring Sobol's Yellow Winter 2021 and three paintings from the Germ of the Month 2020 series.
BOSTON, MA - Childs Gallery exhibition.
BOSTON, MA – With Making Waves now a virtual exhibition at Childs Gallery, Karen Lee takes the opportunity to expound upon her works in the show and discuss her artist process.
Childs Gallery is pleased to present Making Waves, a show centered upon climate change art and humankind's connection to the world's oceans. Karen Lee is one of three women artists featured in the show, and employs her large-scale, visceral Goddess series to depict the threatened goddesses of the Earth and Sea. Her resplendent mixed media canvases expound the need for environmental vigilance with a visually arresting heartfelt plea from Mother Nature herself. Despite the devastating effects of climate change, Karen Lee is determined to remain an optimist, focusing on the belief that we are all benefactors and stewards of the environment. The juxtaposition of Sobol’s hope with the ominous presence of escalating environmental degradation is meant to invoke a protective instinct, to call the audience to action. An opening reception with the artists will be held Friday, March 13, 6-8pm at Child’s Gallery, 169 Newbury Street in Boston.
Karen Lee was recently selected as one of six artists worldwide to participate in Soapply’s limited-edition artist soap bottle series. Soapply produces recycled, refillable glass bottles that reduce waste while functioning as sink-side art. Using lines, forms, and color, Sobol’s design speaks to the power, connection, and rhythm of both nature and human nature. Highlighting the world’s waters flowing, crashing, and falling, Sobol bridges a literal narrative with the abstract to tell a complex and essential story about the resources on which we depend.
"I just unwrapped the pictures in my office, and I am remembering why I loved these. They speak as a pair of hands, which is how we ultimately directly impact the world, and they speak with light and with passion. Thank you very much!"
–Harry Selker, MD, Massachusetts
"Your current paintings are lovely, colorful, bright and full of depth."
–Samantha Springer, Conservator, Portland Art Museum, Oregon
“Gorgeous! The lines are calligraphic, gestural, alive! The colors fresh, the tones give depth, space. The composition has an expansive quality like a dream landscape. Just beautiful.”
–Mary Ting, Architect, New York
BOSTON, MA – As a member of the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC), Karen Lee Sobol currently has paintings on exhibition at Boston Consulting Group and WBUR, Boston's NPR affiliate. These works include The planet formerly known as blue and Through the windshield and will be on view for the next year.
BOSTON, MA – Core de Vie Wellness Studio and Spa invites you to share the vibrant energies of Karen Lee Sobol. Karen Lee’s animated figures and lively landscapes align with movement methods such as Pilates and Gyrotonics, as well as the Studio’s wider mission of health and joy. Meditative abstract paintings harmonize with the healing energies of the Spa. Trainers, healers, and clients alike resonate with the imagery of the art, currently on view at 40 Charles Street.
BOSTON, MA – Extended through September 2019! Cambridge Trust Company invites you to enter the luminous world of Karen Lee Sobol. Paintings and mixed media exploring land, sea, and abstraction are currently on exhibition at 65 Beacon Street opposite the Boston Common. Throughout the seasons, this vibrant body of work responds to changing atmospheres, and consistently uplifts bankers and clients enjoying the shared space.
BOSTON, MA – Karen Lee Sobol was recently invited to participate as a guest artist at the new Millennium Tower in downtown crossing as part of the La Vie Artists’ Series. At this one-night community event, Sobol had the pleasure of interacting with residents and introducing them to her wide range of work. The evening’s themes spanned Sobol’s environmental awareness, architectural career, and creative process, and resulted in engaging interpretations and discussions of her work.
LONGBOAT KEY, FL – Karen Lee Sobol recently expanded her collaborative partnerships to the animal kingdom. While painting along the Gulf of Mexico, an egret visited Sobol for several consecutive days, observing the artist’s paint and act of painting, eventually becoming a color consultant. The work depicted in the image is Painting by the Sea with the Sea Grape Tree, which Sobol began by tracing the moving shadows of the overhead tree in crayon before moving to paint. Together this work and Birds Sea Me form a series of sea-soaked canvases which retain the memory of this special time on the Gulf.
BOSTON, MA – Childs Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Life Is a Beautiful Place: A Radical Collaboration, on view from March 15 to May 13, 2018. The exhibition brings together a select group of women artists whose art expresses the intimate connections between human beings and the natural world. These artists connect art and science to create a visual, visceral language about global environmental change and its implications for life on earth. The term “Life Is a Beautiful Place”, introduced by featured artist Karen Lee Sobol, is meant to take the spotlight off negative connotations associated with climate change, instead focusing on a positive call for action.
BOSTON, MA – BostonVoyager interviews Karen Lee Sobol as part of the Back Bay / Beacon Hill / South End Inspiring Stories series.
TBILISI, GEORGIA – Mother and daughter Karen Lee Sobol and Sara Zielinski have been making art together and separately for decades. In their collaborative exhibition Saudade, created specifically for The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, the artists sought to honor The Library's scholarly history and offer visitors a hands-on, library-like experience.
