Since childhood, I have been impassioned by drawing, painting and circus. Awarded a scholarship to Pratt Institute when I was 16, I pioneered the first independent study program there in order to take courses in juggling and mime. After earning a BFA with honors, I ran away with my first circus, paints and pastels in tow. But it wasn't until meeting Nina Krasavina and Gregory Fedin, a Russian couple who defected from the Moscow Circus to NY, that I began serious acrobatic training as a porter. Warner Bros. Records and Henson Associates were longtime clients of both my performing, graphic work and illustrations, as well as numerous theater, ballet and circus productions.
I was a founding member of the Big Apple Circus, Circus Smirkus and Friendly Bros. Circus (a small Quaker mud show that toured the northeast in the early 80's), and traveled with three ring shows across the US and Canada. Spent many seasons in France with a small, tented show there; when I wasn't performing, I was drawing life backlot. In the large loft I maintained in Manhattan for 38 years, I produced shows, painted, held classes and housed circus performers who visited or worked for me. Having stopped performing--at least acrobatically--I am now choreographing, directing and training youth and teens in the Hudson Valley.
The recipient of an Arts Mid-Hudson/NYSCA Grant in 2019, I created a full-length production "Humanitee Tales", based on the open narratives of eight diverse individuals. After relocating to upstate New York, I've continued painting and exhibiting, but with a focus on showing my circus-themed work in large, professional venues; primarily museums. The Smithsonian brought me in as a plein air artist for their 50th Anniversary Circus Festival; ten of my paintings hung in the Museum of Industry and Arts. A curator of large venue art exhibitions, I have created multi-media shows for Orange Hall Gallery, SUNY Middletown, NY, New Canaan Society for the Arts, CT, The Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY, Krystallpalast Theater Gallery in Leipzig, Germany and Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center, VT. I will be a featured artist and presenter at the upcoming St. John's International Circus Fest hosted by Wonderbolt Productions, in Newfoundland and will be curating an online art Gallery starting in November, 2022, on the House of Holy Humor website.
An overview of my work can be found on my website: https://www.artbykarenegersch.com. My FB page is:"https://www.facebook.com/artbykeg". Teaching, directing and past performing work can be seen on my other FB page: "The Art of Balance and the Art of Comedy".
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