About
Karen Gabbitas is a visual artist whose work encompasses drawing, moving image, installation, participation and social engagement. Her practice is informed by a fascination with ritual and liminal spaces and often reflects on time and transience. Taking a meditative and sustainable approach, she creates group walking events. Her drawing, videos, artist’s books and prints build upon the highly attentive and present aesthetic of her walking work.
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, she studied History at Durham University and was a teacher for more than twenty years before attending Edinburgh College of Art. She graduated in Intermedia Art in 2011.
She lives and works in North Berwick where the local landscape is an abundant inspiration as she seeks to explore the extraordinary and spiritual in everyday life.
Selected Exhibitions and Projects
2023 Land Meets Sea, North Berwick Art Collective exhibition at Ocean Vertical outdoor centre
2022 North Berwick Art Collective Christmas Show
2021 Slow walk for Pilgrimage for COP26 Launch Event, North Light Arts, Dunbar
2020 Visual Arts Scotland Online Exhibition
2020 Re:Connections, Upright Gallery, Edinburgh
2019 Collective Thoughts, North Berwick Art Collective, Fringe by the Sea
2019 Tide: Dialogues of Change, North Light Arts, Townhouse, Dunbar
2015 Christmas Slow, A walk for ArtCOP Scotland, Creative Carbon, Scotland
2014 Fertile Ground Conference Walk, North Light Arts, Belhaven Community Garden
2014 Walk Slow, Pedal Fast, walk and installation The John Muir Festival
2014 Passing, film, Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh
2013 Woodland Crossing, film, Townhouse Dunbar
2013 Walking to Nowhere, artist’s book in touring exhibition The Archivist, Wigtown Book Festival
2013 Walking to Nowhere, artist’s book in touring exhibition The Archivist, Environmental Art Festival Scotland, Dumfries
2013 Woodland Crossing, choreographed walking event, North Light Arts Festival
2013 Slowly Ascending, film, East Lothian Visual Arts exhibition, John Gray Centre, Haddington
2013 Walking into Spring, a walk for the vernal equinox, East Lothian Visual Arts
2012 Slowly Ascending, a slow walk with Jog Scotland, North Berwick Law
2012 Walking to Nowhere, a slow walk for North Light Arts Festival
2012 Incoming, Salon Neu, Embassy Gallery
2011 Slow Wave Through the City, a walk for Embassy Gallery Annuale
2011 Degree Show, Edinburgh College of Art
2011 Dirt Work, film in Elephants at the Royal Standard, Royal Standard Gallery, Liverpool
2010 Tag Tour, walking performance, Edinburgh Festival
Presentations
2016 Green Tease, Creative Carbon event, Gayfield Spaces, Edinburgh
2016 Walking Women, Edinburgh Art Festival
2015 ArtCOP Scotland, walking and poetry event, Creative Carbon
2015 Visiting lecturer, Guests at Grays, Grays School of Art, Aberdeen
2014 Fertile Ground Conference, North Light Arts
2014 Talk for East Lothian Visual Arts, The John Gray Centre, Haddington
Awards
2022 Visual Arts Award East Lothian Council/Creative Scotland
2015 Visual Arts Award East Lothian Council/Creative Scotland
2012 Visual Arts Award East Lothian Council/Creative Scotland
2011 Andrew Grant Travel Scholarship
2009 Andrew Grant Travel Scholarship