Karen LaMonte (b. 1967) is an American artist whose works include sculpture, drawing, print making and site specific installation. Her art explores themes of presence and absence, beauty and ephemerality through the physicality of the human body and its environment.

LaMonte uses dress as a metaphor for gender, persona and body. Her sculptures are uncanny in their rich detail and implied human presence. They explore cultural identity and the boundaries of self and society. Her use of material – glass, iron, ceramic and bronze – is founded on a belief that materials have meaning and are critical to the idea of a sculpture.

The Kimono Series
“In all cultures, clothing is an unspoken language: but the kimono is the most codified. Every aspect of its design – including imagery, sleeve length, and obi type and tie – is highly significant, communicating volumes about the wearer.
In place of the West’s preoccupation with the self, the Japanese idea of beauty and its relationship to individuality, the body, and nudity highlights group-centered conformity. From public bathing to the kimono itself, the body and its specificities are not the object of focus – neither covered nor ignored, but studiously rendered invisible.
In eliminating the defining curves of the female body, making it uniform and neutral, the kimono literally erases the self and individuality, transcending the corporeal beauty of the wearer. By putting on the kimono, one is assuming one’s appropriate place in society: its language announces and reproduces that social role.”-Karen LaMonte

Imagine Museum is proud to have 22 of LaMonte’s magnificent sculptures in the collection.