Karen Stoskopf Harding

Biography

Harding graduated with an Honours BA, Visual Arts, Ontario Graduate Scholarship, University of Western Ontario; and a MA, Art History, University of Toronto.  Her continuing Visual Art studies included courses at McGill University, Central Technical School, Three Schools of Art, Atlin Centre For the Arts, BC, and Toronto Teachers College. She also studied at the Instituto Allende in Mexico; and acquired fluency in French at Alliance Française, Paris, France

Harding is the Founder / Chair of the Richmond Hill Youth Visual Art Festival since 2007. She was elected into the Sculptors Society of Canada in 1984, and has been its Archivist since 1985. Her works are in public and private collections in Europe, USA, and Canada including: Museum of Anthropology, London ON; the Gustave Stoskopf Museum, Alsace, France; North York Library, and Advent Lutheran Church, Toronto. She is the recipient of Grants from French Language Fund, Ministry of Education, and the Ontario Arts Council. She authored Architecture Française en Ontario. And she also received the Silver Trophy of the President of the Senate of Italian Republic; IX Biennale Internazionale Dantesca, Ravenna, Italy. Her studio is based in Richmond Hill ON.

Artist Statement

The human face is endlessly fascinating to me.  Over the years, I have created portraits – some commemorative, some from the imagination – in bronze, ciment fondu, fiberglass, plaster, bone, and encaustic – including a series of one-of-a-kind symbolic masks based on facial castings.  Certain masks are incorporated into larger mixed-media works with a specific theme, some overt in message, others inviting interpretation by the viewer.