KAREN + BYSTEDT

Bio

T H E A R T I S T - P H O T O G R A P H E R
K A R E N B Y S T E D T

Karen Bystedt rocked the contemporary art world with the USA introduction of The Lost Warhols, at Photo LA, 2013. The body of work was quickly selected to headline the Month of Photography in Los Angles Show, at The Robert Berman Gallery in Bergmont Station. In an April, Fabrik Magazine, cover story, Berman characterized Bystedt’s Andy Warhol show as, “an austere and powerful look at one of the most celebrated artists of the Twentieth century.”

After studying photography and literature at the American College in Paris, the young artist returned to the United States and earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in Film, at New York University, in 1982. It was while she was a student in New York, that she photographed Warhol at The Factory. Karen Bystedt has lived and worked on four continents which has left her multilingual and culturally at ease at navigating through a diverse cacophony of international cultures.

Bystedt moved firmly into photographing celebrity movie stars, when they were young and unknown. She has written the narratives and interviews that accompany the four books of glamour shots she has published; NOT JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE (1983), THE NEW BREED (1988), BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS (1992) and, THEY DARED TO DREAM (2009).

Karen Bystedt’s artistic strength is her ability to establish an intimate trust with those shoots, she engages them on-camera and then makes them look beautiful – a skill well honed on Warhol – and one the photographer used throughout her career. Her strong images of iconic men brands them as totemic markers of their times.

Collaborations with other artists include Peter Tunney, Speedy Graphito and Tonia Calderon. Her work is the permanent collections of The Andy Warhol Museum, The Hearst Foundation, Prince Albert of Monaco, and Tomasso Buti, among others.
The artist-photographer currently resides in West Hollywood, California


CURRENT REPRESENTATION:

Lawrence Cantor Fine Art

4811 W Adams Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA, 90016
(805) 300-1308
Email: Ijc@fineoldart.com

IRIS GALLERY / Ian Collins
www.IrisGallery.net

Iris Gallery (Boston)
129 Newbury St.
Boston, MA 02116
617-895-8951
alison@irisgallery.net

Iris Gallery (Aspen)
520 East Hyman. Ave.
Aspen, CO
(970) 429-1010

Monday - Friday 11 -7
Saturday 10 - 7
Sunday 12 - 6

Karen Bystedt