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Karen Fiorito:The Sound of the Fury :: Print artist Karen Fiorito isn't afraid to ruffle some feathers

By Kaycee Olsen   Photography by N/A

06/27/08 :: URB web

Walking into Karen Fiorito’s downtown studio is a bit like stepping into a modern day version of Frida Kahlo’s Blue House. There isn’t any wall space left uncovered by the brightest and boldest posters created by Karen and her peers. Pumped out at Hard Pressed Studios, which she runs with her business partner, John Carr, Fiorito is an artist specializing in screen-printing—and she brings her skills both to the studio and street. When not printing for Obey and Robbie Conal, she works on her own illustrious posters. One personal creation depicts Condoleezza Rice as “Condinatrix,” a dominatrix vixen shown ruling over the world at the mercy of her bullwhip. Fiorito explains that she has come to create such images out of questioning the ways in which women assert their power, as well as to illustrate a woman’s perspective on a man’s world. She feels compelled to bear witness to contemporary issues, particularly in U.S. politics and popular culture, and express these reactions and feelings through her art. Her posters are direct social commentary with an immediacy derived from being taken off the press and onto the streets without delay.

 “I take my art to the street in order to make my voice heard by all people and to challenge the assumption that art and politics do not mix,” Fiorito explains. In 2005, she placed a huge billboard with an image of a hand puppet being controlled by a ghostly Uncle Sam figure with a text line that read “Shox News Channel: We Distort You Comply”—near the Fox News offices in LA. This brought not only public attention from the likes of Bill O’Reilly, still at the height of his powers, but the lines were ringing from the head of Fox News with urgent demands for the billboard to be removed. The statement remained up as Karen stood her ground.

This sort of conflict gives Fiorito a sense of angst that she channels into energy and uses as motivation for her art. Although she insists, “I am not an angry person. In fact, I try to be as Buddhist as possible,” it becomes delightfuly illuminating why she is not known on the streets as Karen, but simply as “The Fury.”