Karen Fiortio Biography

Karen Fiorito received her Master’s in Fine Art in Printmaking from Arizona State University and her Bachelor's of Fine Art in Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Pennsylvania. Her work has been featured in major publications such as Art in America, the Huffington Post, the LA Weekly, and URB Magazine. She was the recipient of a Change, Inc. Grant from Robert Rauchenberg in 2004 and a Puffin Foundation Grant in 2005 for a billboard installation in Santa Monica.

From 2004 to 2012, Fiorito owned and operated Buddha Cat Press, a socially conscious printmaking studio and publishing company. Her work as a Master Printer has been showcased at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for the Pacific Standard Time Project and at the Los Angels County Museum of Art.

In addition to being an artist and Master Printer, Fiortio has curated several exhibitions dealing with Animal Liberation. In 2011, Fiorito worked with Santa Monica's Arena 1 Gallery to bring to the public Evolution Revolution: the Interconnectedness of All Beings, an exhibition and forum which featured the work of William Wegman, Sue Coe, Robbie Conal and other prominent artists. In 2014, she curated WE ANIMALS, a retrospective of photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur's work for the National Museum of Animals and Society in Los Angeles.

Fiorito currently lives in Santa Monica and works out of her art studio in Culver City.

Artist's Statement

I believe all beings are worthy of our compassion and love, and that humans can evolve in order for this to become a reality. The time has come for a paradigm shift from one of speciesism to one where all life is considered sacred and interconnected. Through my art, I strive to make the viewer to feel as I do: that all beings are sacred and magical. Ancient cultures once worshipped and respected nature and the laws of the universe and lived in harmony with them. I believe that through art and meditation with nature and it's creatures, we can again experience that connection with all beings, that connection human beings once held sacred.