Karen will be interpreting the sculptural element of what typically sits on top of the couple's wedding cake.
Traditionally this has been a small bride and groom or a pair of doves. Karen will use this model to produce her own cake top piece that is reflective of both the couple and her thoughts on marriage.
Believer, 2004-2008, tape, rope lights, mesh, 12' x 6' x 2'w
Progress as of JulyLast week we met with Karen Lofgren who is making the cake, Get Hubbied style. Originally we asked Karen to approach the cake topper sculpturally; it usually depicts a figurine of both bride and groom in full wedding attire. She proposed to also design the cake itself, and with my blessing and to our delight did so in the most singular way. What artist doesn't think about their podium? Again, we're not going to give anything away, but what we can say is that this is going to be a rare dessert - 'one-of-a-kind' does not do it justice.
Karen Lofgren is at Toronto-born, LA-based artist who received her MFA from CalArts. She had been included in numerous group exhibitions at places including High Desert Test Sites, Daniel Hug Gallery, LACMA, Slab at the Old LA Zoo, Anna Helwing Gallery, Black Dragon Society, FiveThirtyThree, The Craft and Folk Art Museum, and Circus Gallery. Solo shows include Believer at Machine Project and Gold Flood at Pitzer College, for which she also received a grant from the Durfee Foundation.
Working with a mix of references from medieval alchemy, to natural history, to politics and philosophy, the work forms a place of its own that is both bodily and cerebral, public and personal. Installation landscapes immerse the viewer at 'life scale' with forms that span complete abstraction, to symbol through text, to literal graphic figuration. Fusing soft-modernist, abstract, corporate, rock, pharmaceutical, and consumer culture aesthetics, sculptural forms take on multiple interpretive directions.