About

Lauren Karp is a Nashville-based photographer and visual artist whose work fuses imagination with the natural and built world. She is the creator of Imaginature™, a signature artistic process that transforms familiar locations and icons into layered abstractions that evoke a renewed sense of place. Drawing inspiration from textures in nature, the geometry of architecture, and stories embedded in cultural landmarks, her still and moving images invite viewers to see the beauty around them in unexpected and captivating ways.

Karp’s installations are part of public and private collections worldwide, with permanent, large-scale pieces throughout Vanderbilt University Medical Center, including a multi-piece installation in the hospital’s main lobby. Her artwork is also featured in corporate spaces. Her collaborations with curators, architects, designers, and public art agencies reflect a commitment to creating versatile artwork that inspires engagement.

Karp’s connection to the natural world began in the bucolic countryside of Pennsylvania, where she spent her childhood exploring farmlands, streams, and open fields. Surrounded by an ever-changing landscape, she developed an early appreciation for color and seasonal transformation, sensibilities that define her artistic vision. From a young age, Karp displayed a love for creative expression, teaching herself calligraphy at eight, painting custom sneakers at thirteen, and at nineteen, launching a hand-painted clothing business that funded her college education.

After earning a BBA in Marketing and Management from Temple University, she spent a decade working in the art publishing industry, rising from Product Manager to North American Art Director for a global fine art print and poster company. In this role, she collaborated with world-renowned artists and photographers, refining her understanding of composition, scale, and presentation. This experience reinforced her belief in the dialogue between artist, curator, and audience, which guides her art practice today.

In 2011, shortly after relocating to Nashville, Karp turned her lens to wildlife photography. What began as a personal pursuit quickly evolved into a rigorous artistic practice. She spent years hiking diverse terrain and photographing animals in their natural habitats, taking hundreds of thousands of images that went beyond documentation to reveal distinct personalities. This immersive period sharpened her ability to anticipate movement, recognize nuance in color, and capture the quiet drama of the natural world. Karp’s artistic perception is also shaped by her hearing loss, which began more than 25 years ago. Without hearing aids, she experiences near silence, an absence that heightens her visual awareness. This enhanced perception allows her to notice subtle variations in light, hue, and atmosphere, qualities that continue to define her work today.

By 2018, Karp began showing and selling her work to collectors. A pivotal moment came in 2019 when she was commissioned to create artwork for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Seeking a new visual language, she drew on the patience and sensitivity honed through wildlife photography and began experimenting with intentional camera movement while at a Tennessee lake. The resulting image distilled the colors, textures, and emotional resonance of the scene into something both recognizable and dreamlike. This technique became the foundation for her Imaginature™ Collection, an evolving body of work that reinterprets familiar subjects with intricate patterns, vibrant colors, and layered forms. By deconstructing and reconstructing her images, Karp produces work that blurs the line between reality and fantasy.

Karp envisioned her collections morphing and flowing to original music. In 2023, she introduced Imaginature In Motion™, a series of digital works where image and sound merge to create a meditative experience of the living landscape. Her practice continued to evolve with new thematic collections, including Imaginature: Urban Fantasy, which portrays the architecture and culture of city life, and Imaginature: Iconography, which reimagines cultural and symbolic imagery through modern abstraction.

Alongside her installations and thematic series, Karp has also launched the virtual Imaginature™ Store, where her art is available worldwide on a range of products. Building on her decades of experience in printing and product design, the shop extends her artistic work to a global audience.

Aligned with her love for the natural world, Karp donates 5% of all profits to organizations dedicated to conserving land, water, and wildlife. This commitment to preservation is both personal and professional, echoing the themes that run throughout her work.

Whether presented as large-scale installations, integrated into architectural environments, or experienced as immersive moving image works, Karp’s Imaginature™ offers endless possibilities where imagination and reality converge.