Karina Hean, Visiting Assistant Professor
Painting, Drawing, Foundations
email: karina.hean@umontana.edu
phone: 406.243.6074
office: Fine Arts Bldg 409
Bio
Hean’s drawings have been nationally and regionally exhibited at various galleries and art centers including, Zane Bennett Contemporary, 222 Shelby Street Gallery, Deloney Newkirk Gallery and the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe, NM, the Hera Gallery and Krause Gallery in RI, The UMC Art Gallery in Boulder, CO, the Foundry Art Center and Columbia College in MO, the Cannon Gallery of Art in OR, and the Crown Center Gallery in Chicago, IL; upcoming exhibitions include solo and group exhibitions at the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery in Huntsville, TX, Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, the Haydon Art Center in Lincoln, NE, Yavapai College in Prescott, AZ. Her work was selected for the Drawing Center’s Viewing Program and was commissioned for the Project Space at the University of Texas, El Paso’s Gerald and Stanlee Rubin Center for the Visual Arts. She has been the recipient of several artist residencies, including the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Visual Arts, Jentel Foundation, Lerman Charitable Trust Foundation, I-Park, and Vermont Studio Centers and was selected as the American Artist Fellow at the Ballinglen Center for the Arts in Ireland. Hean has been a Visiting Professor of Art at the University of Montana, Fort Lewis College, and an Instructor of Record at New Mexico State University.
Artist Statement
In my work I tend to draw a kind of confluence of motion and emotion where natural forms and gestures serve as metaphors for psychological states. As a result, the drawings often communicate the impact of the landscape on the body and psyche and how the landscape’s structure records motion and growth. Among the series of drawings and within a single drawing, description ranges from sensitive caring line to bold aggressive mark; unavoidably perhaps, I yearn to see this range of experience as present in the work as in life.
Teaching Philosophy
In studio assignments, I aim to present both beginning and advanced students with opportunities for technical and conceptual development. Throughout the semester, in critiques, reviews, and written exercises, the importance of verbal, critical, analytical, and visual acuity with relation to creative visual communication is stressed. Additionally, in my courses, visual problem solving involves building a student’s self-awareness and sense of responsibility.
Education
2005 NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY, LAS CRUCES, NM-Department of Art, M.F.A.
2000-2001 STUDIO ART CENTERS INTERNATIONAL, FLORENCE, ITALY-Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Drawing
1996-2000 ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, ANNAPOLIS. MD-B.A. in Liberal Arts
1997-1999 MARYLAND INSTITUTE, COLLEGE OF ART, BALTIMORE, MD
