Artist Bio

Karen Roth was born in Detroit, Michigan and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education at Wayne State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and mixed media at Eastern Michigan University.

The urban environment had a profound effect on her aesthetic development. Detroit, a once vibrant city, spent many years in a very steep decline. She incorporated this devastation into her painting. This resulted in a body of work that was gritty, rough and rudimentary. She continues to utilize this concept in her art.

In addition to painting on canvas, she created a billboard sponsored by Eller Outdoor Advertising in Detroit. The large piece was displayed in an outdoor location after she painted it in their indoor studio. 

While continuing her artwork, Roth helped raise two sons who are now artists and authors in their own right, as well as holding positions at a local downtown newspaper, art gallery and television station where she worked in the newsroom as an assistant and later as an apprentice in the graphic arts department. She wrote articles, took photos and created graphics about the changing Detroit as well as writing and editing at an arts related monthly magazine. After relocating to New York in 1988, she became an executive secretary at ABC (American Broadcasting Company) and later in the legal department at New Line Cinema.

Roth lives and works in Brooklyn. Her artwork is displayed in galleries and other venues.