This page highlights the work I’ve exhibited in New York and Vancouver, as well as some of my early photography, with plenty of links to more pictures, videos, and stories. Enjoy!
Solo Exhibit New York
My first solo exhibit in New York City took place in Greenwich Village in March 2020, just as the pandemic began. Midway through the month-long show, the city closed down. My artwork graced the gallery walls for three months! The opening party was a sensorily explosive synesthesia event incorporating taste, sound, smell, sight, and touch. Musicians composed 1-minute pieces to accompany the art, and there was a taste pairing for each photo as well.
Group Exhibits New York
National Arts Club
In 2022, I became an Exhibiting Artist Member of the National Arts Club, and it was such a privilege to display “Bruce’s Handbag” in the Member Exhibition that year. During the course of the exhibition, I met with some of the artists for a fascinating evening talking about creating art. What an honor to be included among their number.
Works exhibited:
-
- The Collector – 2023
- Bruce’s Handbag – 2022
Salmagundi Club
I have also been honored to have my artwork shown in these group exhibits at the Salmagundi Club:
-
- Reflections and Watertower Moon – 46th Annual Open Photo Exhibition 2024
- The Collector – Annual Photography Exhibition 2022
- Sunday on the Stoop – Open Cityscapes Exhibition 2021
- Tailor – 42nd Annual Open Exhibition in Photography 2020
- Summer Piano in Washington Square Park – Open Exhibit Greenwich Village and Surroundings 2019
Reflections and Watertower Moon, Karen Rempel, Salmagundi 2024
Karen Rempel artwork exhibited at the Salmagundi Club, 2019-2022
Solo Exhibit Vancouver
My first solo art exhibit was in Vancouver in August 2015, less than a year after my first trip to New York lit me on fire! It was the culmination of many years of work and play, and I never would have dreamed it could result in having my own show. The pieces from this show are available for sale.
Other Artwork
Photographs
Videos
- Another New York Love Affair – 1 minute audio meditations of the sounds of New York on YouTube – 60+ videos
- E. 4th St – take one – Lou Reed’s Heroin
- E. 4th St – take two – Voidoids, Reed, Darling
- Shadow Play – 5 minute video of art opening on YouTube
Photo collections
- Shadow Play
- Shadow Play Two
- Copper Light
- Mushroom Soup
- Shadow Play and Art Exhibit Opening
- The Elusive Eggplant
- Black Rook Bakehouse
- Monkey Valley Photo Retrospective
A Meandering Art Journey
My First NYc Photo at the Salmagundi
In 2019, I was honored to show this photograph in an exhibit at the prestigious Salmagundi Art Club. The exhibit of artwork celebrated the diverse, unique character of Greenwich Village and marked the 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village Historic District. The exhibit also celebrated the centennial of Salmagundi Club’s present location in an Italianate mansion at 47 Fifth Avenue.
This was the first time my work was exhibited in New York and it was such a thrill! This entry describes the genesis of the piece, and how it launched my Another New York Love Affair art project on YouTube. How to Get Your Art onto a Collector’s Wall describes the fate of the piece!
In the Beginning
Back in 1990 and 1991, when I was exploring career options (to transition from accounting into another field), I took a few interesting courses at BCIT. These included journalism, cartooning, detecting, and photography. My dad was an ardent photographer, and took thousands of photographs when I was growing up. I inherited his Canon TX and lenses, and this was the camera I used for the photography course and for another two decades. He had already been using it since the 1970s! Now that’s quality. The biggest problems are caused by user error. I still remember accidentally exposing a roll of film after doing a wonderful series of night shots of trees in New Westminster. Darn!
I have also used a Polaroid Spectra 2 (especially handy for those naughty photos!). In more recent years, I used my LG flip phone, since the digital output was handy for porting pictures onto this blog. And now, I use my iPhone 5s.
I have published my photography quite extensively as a photojournalist and in magazines. I thought it would be fun to show you some of my favourite pix from the early years. Enjoy!
Some Favorites
You might notice a sky theme as you look at the photos on this page. I did! (Click the pictures below to see a larger view, and then click the Back button on your browser to return to this page.)
This picture was published in the now-defunct Ripe Magazine. I submitted it for an issue called “Truth.” Even when I took the photo, in about 2001, you couldn’t get a shirt dry-cleaned for 96¢! I loved the irony, and the fact that the sign was an old-time hand-painted one.
Here’s a similar theme—a tall object on a pole against a blue sky. I took this on a trip to New Zealand in 1997. Can you guess what the object is? I was dismayed to find this American icon in New Zealand. Although 17 years after the release of The Gods Must Be Crazy, I shouldn’t have been surprised!
Here’s a pic I’ve shown you on my blog, from the women’s vision fast in Big Pine, California in September 2013. I took this pic in the Patriarch Grove in the Inyo Mountains. Some ancient bristlecone pine trees are 5,000 years old or more. They are the oldest known living beings on the planet. It was a sacred experience for me to spend time with these beings. It really put my life and myself in perspective. A tiny being amongst billions on the planet, with a lifespan of 100 years or probably less. This picture was published in Diamond Dust, a newsletter for a spiritual work school. For that publication I called it No Self.
And here are a few I’ve shot out and about in East Vancouver.
