In Karen Knorr’s work, the animal serves as an intermediary between nature and humankind, acting both as an emissary of the former and a surreal avatar of the latter. Her works reflect a critical mise en abyme of humanity through the metaphorical form of the animal figure.
— Nathalie Leleu
Karen Knorr, born in 1954 in Germany, is an American photographer living and working in London. She grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the 1960s, in a cultural environment that would have a lasting influence on her vision, before pursuing her studies in Paris and then London. At the University of Westminster, she studied alongside Olivier Richon, Mitra Tabrizian, and Mark Lewis, at the heart of the critical debates on the politics of representation that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She later taught and lectured internationally, notably at the University of Westminster, Goldsmiths College, Harvard University, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
She establishes a dialogue with the photographic medium that is both critical and playful, employing a range of visual and textual strategies to explore her subjects. Her work explores the domestic sphere, lifestyles, and the representation of animals, questioning their display within museum contexts.
Through photography, Knorr examines Western cultural traditions—from the gentlemen’s clubs of St James’s to the Palladian mansions of the English countryside—offering an incisive reading of British society. Her work engages in an ongoing dialogue with conceptual art, visual culture, feminist theory, and animal studies.
Her works have been exhibited in numerous institutions in France and internationally, including Tate Britain in London in 2024 and the Bergamot Art Center in Santa Monica in 2022. More recently, she took part in the Rencontres d’Arles alongside Anna Fox and will soon present her work at the Châteaux of Azay-le-Rideau and Oiron.