Karen Graffeo is an Professor of Art and director of photography concentration at the University of Montevallo. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography and Painting at the University of Alabama. In 2005 she was named University Scholar at the University of Montevallo for her documentary photography work in Roma (Gypsy) communities and refugee encampments in Europe.
Karen Graffeo is an active multi-media artist in photography, performance and installation. She has had numerous national and international solo exhibitions. Her exhibition “Let Us Now Praise the Roma” has been exhibited in Paris, Italy, New York, and Romania. In 2010 her work was displayed at the Mobile Museum of Art’s survey of Southern Women Photographers. Her recent lenticular installation, “Re:re:re:fwd:fwd:Forward” was exhibited in Florence, Italy. In October 2011, SACI University in Florence, Italy will present her photographic opera collaboration with composer Rusty Banks.
She has received grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, and the Andy Warhol Foundation through Space One Eleven Contemporary Arts Center. Her work was published in Aperture Magazine. Her work is included in public and private collections in Japan, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, and Birmingham, Alabama
