Karen Azarnia

Take It Slow

Solo Exhibition - Cultivator at Bray Grove Farm

Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 2026, 2-5pm

Cultivator is pleased to present Karen Azarnia’s exhibition, Take It Slow, during Bray Grove Farm’s Spring Farm Day. This exhibition coincides with Regin Igloria’s exhibition installation for Cultivator..

Please rsvp to join us on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25th from 2-5pm for art, conversation, light refreshments, and an afternoon on our small holistic farm. You can drop in anytime between 2-5pm. We are tentatively scheduling a tour of the farm with Brian and Joanne at 4pm. Bray Grove Farm is located 70 miles southwest of Chicago in Grundy County. To confirm your attendance and receive directions and parking information, kindly email joanne@cultivatorarts.com.

This work is an invitation to slow down.  A decidedly analog installation, it blurs the boundary between painting and sculpture, pushing against the digital and the expedient.

Based on indigenous plants native to the prairie region, the work also pulls from memories of the landscape the artist experienced growing up in South Florida, and from summertime trips to visit both her Armenian and American grandparents living in the Midwest.  The lush color and gestural mark-making seek to evoke feelings of growth and abundance.  

 Placed within the context of the landscape at Cultivator, these works prompt the viewer to notice details that relate to the visual textures and rhythms of the farm:  the way the muslin fabric flutters in the breeze, causing animation.  The relationship between colors, as sunlight shifts across painted surfaces.  These works are about being in connection with the environment.  Rather than seeking dominance, they assign agency to the land.  You are invited to step outside, take your time, and consider the natural world around us.

–Karen Azarnia

Karen Azarnia is an artist, educator, and independent curator. Born in Miami, FL she currently lives and works in Chicago. She has exhibited nationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (New Haven, CT,) the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts (Miller Beach District, Gary, IN), Alma Gallery (Chicago, IL), and Governor’s State University, (Bourbonnais, IL).  Azarnia is a grant recipient from the Illinois Arts Council, Chicago DCASE, and the 3Arts Foundation. Her work and curatorial projects have been included in publications including the Chicago Tribune, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Maake Magazine, and the Huffington Post. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Azarnia currently teaches in the Department of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was awarded the Nick and Keven Wilder Award for excellence in teaching.

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