Karen Wicks is a UK-based printmaker living in the Midlands. Her practice is deeply influenced by overlooked and forgotten places, capturing their quiet presence and intrigue through intaglio print techniques.

At the heart of her work lies the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi—an appreciation of beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. This concept shapes her artistic approach, as she seeks to document the narratives of everyday spaces and abandoned structures using sustainable printmaking methods.

Her prints celebrate the subtle marks we leave behind as we pass through places, giving form to ‘ghost buildings’—remnants of lived experiences that linger long after their physical presence fades.

Karen’s work embraces lo-fi home print techniques and repurposed materials, inscribing into discarded packaging that naturally deteriorates over time. The fragility and disintegration of these materials mirror the transient nature of the places she depicts. Each piece is printed directly from these unconventional ‘plates,’ resulting in one-of-a-kind or limited-edition prints that embody the themes of memory, erosion, and time.

Drawing through play and experimenting with process have always been core parts of my practice - I try to capture a sense of ‘curiosity’ and ‘intrigue’, inviting the viewer to reflect upon the drawing/print and inviting new stories to unfold.

Printmaking has allowed me to experiment quickly and in the small pockets of time from my dining table, sandwiched between working as a teacher and family life. Drawing allows me to decompress and imagine, and my subject matter has always been about celebrating the ‘everyday’ or the ‘overlooked’ in an attempt to capture the trace that we leave.

Through drawing and printmaking I am able to connect with the senses and re-story imagined landscapes from the mundane, I hope that you enjoy seeing the different ways that these creative processes have evolved into the work that you see here.