During her residency, Karen Kar Yen Law will develop a new body of work within her ongoing artistic exploration of the five essential flavours of Chinese cuisine (salty, spicy, sour, sweet, and bitter). Focusing her research at the RMG on bitterness, Karen will create new paintings inspired by the unique flavour profile of the bitter melon. Drawing on a variety of painting and printmaking techniques, she will consider how bitterness relates to Chinese culinary traditions, experiences of diaspora and diasporic identities, and intergenerational relationships.
Karen Kar Yen Law (b. 1997) is a second-generation Cantonese-Chinese artist based in Markham. With an interest in food and domestic culinary practices, Law utilizes printmaking and painting to explore cultural practice and diasporic identity. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) and Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University. Law was the 2021-2022 Emerging Printmaker Scholarship Residency holder at Open Studio Contemporary Printmaking Centre where she now practices as an artist member. She was the winner of the 2023 Untapped People’s Choice Award at Toronto’s independent artists fair, Artist Project. Law’s artwork has been exhibited throughout Kingston and Toronto, including Union Gallery, the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts, Gallery 1313, Myseum Toronto, and Open Studio. She has provided educational programming for Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, St. Michael’s Printshop, York Region District School Board, and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
The RBC Emerging Artist Residency Program is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Project.