Karen Azoulay

Karen Azoulay (born 1977)^[1] is a multidisciplinary visual artist and author from Toronto, Canada.^[2] She is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.

Artistic practice

Azoulay’s artwork includes colorful sculpture, performance and installations.^[3] Her interdisciplinary works, which explore language, natural elements, and the female form, are often captured in film or photography finished with collage or paint.^[4] She uses ephemeral materials such as fresh flowers, clay, and her own body.^[4] In her exhibition Semi-Precious (2019) at Essex Flowers, Azoulay drew inspiration from a skeleton of an 11th-century German woman, who was found to have remnants of lapis lazuli on her teeth, indicating she was likely a manuscript illuminator.^[5] Azoulay's "Eating Flowers" motif, in which she consumes different flowers with dark, glitter-coated lips and teeth, explores ideas of vulnerability, nourishment, and decay.^[6]

Solo exhibitions

Solo exhibitions include CUE Art Foundation in New York, curated by Glenn Ligon,^[7] Fire Tale, Four Gallery in Dublin,^[8] Deep, Deep Under the Sea, Mercer Union in Toronto,^[9] Sculpture After the Apocalypse, Primetime, Brooklyn,^[10] The Botanist’s Mime, Dose Projects, Brooklyn,^[11] and Indexing the Leaves, Methodist Archives, Drew University in Madison, NJ.^[12]

Publications

In March 2023, Azoulay published a book on the Victorian language of flowers, titled Flowers and Their Meanings, The Secret Language and History of Over 600 Blooms.^[13] 

Published by Clarkson Potter (an imprint of Penguin Random House), the 248-page book includes a foreword by bestselling author Kate Bolick, a dictionary of over 600 flowers, an index organized by theme, and essays about the history of floriography. It is illustrated with a combination of nineteenth-century botanical illustrations and Azoulay’s own photography.^[13]

The book expands upon the topic of a booklet Azoulay self-published in 2015, titled Flowers and their Meanings, which also includes her photography and a dictionary of Victorian flower symbolism.^[14][15]

References

1. "Karen Azoulay".
2. "Influencers: 12 Canadian Women with talent and vision that knows no bounds". FASHION Magazine. 2012-11-07. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
3. Linden, Liz (Summer 2011). "Karen Azoulay: Carnation Thunder". C: International Contemporary Art. 110: 41–42 – via ProQuest.
4. "DXFILE-Karen Az". DXIX Projects. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
5. Larkin, Daniel (2019-07-22). "Eating Flowers in Search of Mysticism and Meaning". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
6. "KAREN AZOULAY — Essex Flowers". essexflowers.us. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
7. "Karen Azoulay". CUE Art Foundation. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
8. "Karen Azoulay at Four Dublin - Artmap.com". artmap.com. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
9. "Mercer Union | DEEP, DEEP UNDER THE SEA". Retrieved 2019-03-09.
10. "Primetime | Karen Azoulay | Sculpture After the Apocalypse". p-r-i-m-e-t-i-m-e.com. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
11. "Karen Azoulay—2016 Solo Exhibition". Dose Projects. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
12. narnia06 (2018-02-09). "Indexing the Leaves". The Drew Acorn. Retrieved 2019-03-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
13. "Flowers and Their Meanings". Penguin Random House Retail. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
14. "Flowers and Their Meanings with Karen Azoulay". Printed Matter. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
15. "Art Metropole / Flowers And Their Meanings". Art Metropole. Retrieved 2023-04-01.