Human connection is the key element to Lauren Karjala’s paintings.
Sometimes it’s a connection with a roommate or a dear friend; this summer, it was with a couple of expats during a three-week trip to Paris after leaving her art consulting job to pursue painting full-time.
On this adventure, she remembers one moment in particular, as night fell after a 105-degree day. The trio was drinking spritzes at an outdoor cafe. Streetlights, candlelights, and twinkle lights illuminated her new friend Amanda’s skin, her dress, and her Campari Spritz.
It stood out to Karjala as a beautiful, significant moment – a moment she’d immortalize upon her return home in a painting called “Campari Spritz.”
This painting is one of 10 by Karjala hanging in the Jill C. Wilson Gallery at Kimball Jenkins this fall as part of the exhibition, “Concordia,” curated by Katzman Contemporary Projects. In addition to Karjala, the show features work by emerging New England contemporary artists including Jessica Parker Foley, Michael Andrew Phillips, Trevor Toney and Kevin Xiques.
During an interview at the gallery, Karjala wore a black T-shirt printed with names of iconic female artists – Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Louise Bourgeois. Her paintings leaned against the wainscotting of the Victorian 1882 mansion, soon to be hung by curators, married couple Eric and Julee Katzman (with help from their fluffy white dog Sachi).
She pointed to one portrait, “Red Pajamas,” which depicts her friend Anastasia that was painted on a dark December day.
“She and I were sitting on the couch, having a really deep and soulful conversation, and something struck me about that moment. A lot of my paintings are about memory, nostalgia, and those fleeting, special moments that are so easy to miss,” Karjala said. “For me, it’s about witnessing them, and making them live on.”
Karjala, who earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the University of New Hampshire in 2014, went right into the corporate art world after college, first as a curatorial assistant for a private art collection, then moving into art consulting shortly after. This summer, after 10 years working for someone else, she decided to move to Dover and see how far she could take her own art.
“I’ve always been really lucky to be able to work in art, but it’s always been in the back of my mind – that I feel my work deserves a chance to be the only thing I focus on for a long time. I’ve spent 10 years focusing on building other artists’ careers, which I love doing, but I want to give myself a period of time to only focus on me,” she said.
Another featured artist, Foley, also recently made a big career leap. Until last January, they taught at the Maine College of Art in Portland, but it got to a point where it was hard to be away from the studio; there were exciting ideas in their paintings that hadn’t been there before.
“It felt like things were happening in my studio whether I was there or not, and if I wasn’t there, then I was going to miss it. It didn’t feel like something I could come back to later. It was the kind of opportunity you had to be present for if you wanted to take advantage of it,” Foley said.
Foley, who lives in Maine now, grew up in Concord, right down the road from Kimball Jenkins, and took art classes there as a child. The pieces in the show represent a motif Foley’s been working on, “Woman with Purse,” about what it means to be a woman right now. “I liked the idea of closing out the year in my hometown with some of the pieces I’m most proud of. It’s a pretty special show for me,” Foley said.
Since leaving her job, Karjala has become part of an enormous, supportive arts community on the Seacoast, thanks in part to the Katzmans, who showed both her work and Foley’s work in one of the first exhibitions in their new Dover gallery, Katzman Contemporary Projects, last fall.
Eric and Julee Katzman run a dental practice, Katzman Dental, together, but always wanted to open their own gallery. The opportunity arrived a year ago when an office space opened next to their building. “Concordia” is their sixth show, their first off-site. Their mission: to lift artists and create an artistic community.
“It’s Katzman Contemporary Projects, not Katzman Contemporary Galleries – we’re a project space, which is, intellectually and theoretically, different from a gallery,” Eric Katzman said. “It’s really about what’s current, but also what’s different and unique to the northeastern aesthetic that you won’t necessarily find in New York or LA. Our focus is uplifting artists and creating community, but also providing a forum for artists to look at other artists, and have that level of discussion that’s not necessarily economically centered.”
The couple talked in length about the artists represented in this show. About how Foley had recently been picked up by a major Northeast gallery; about the painting they purchased from Karjala; about how their shows have fostered connections between artists, which can make the venture of pursuing art full-time a little less scary.
“They love art, and they’re passionate about community-building,” Foley said. “I think sometimes galleries show really conservative work because they don’t think the public is ready for certain things, and I think what’s beautiful about what they’re doing is they’re trusting that there are people out in New Hampshire who are going to like exciting, contemporary work.”
The opening reception for “Concordia” at Kimball Jenkins is Saturday, Nov. 19, from 6 to 8 p.m.