Karen Gonzalez Rice

Research

Karen Gonzalez Rice is a contemporary art historian with multidisciplinary roots in the history of performance art, a visual art medium that emphasizes the artist’s body as the material of art, her work is concerned with strategies of performance art as liberatory frameworks for embodied meaning-making and justice-seeking.

Art History

performance ART

religious studies

American studies

trauma studies

museum studies

disability studies

Deaf studies

Karen Gonzalez Rice with short hair smiles warmly at the camera, sitting on a light gray couch. They are wearing a colorful, patterned dress with shades of turquoise, yellow, and black. A green plant is visible in the background.
Karen Gonzalez Rice / Photo by Brenda De Los Santos
A person in a pink outfit lies on a red mat with one arm raised. They are wearing a yellow scarf and are surrounded by various objects, including a pair of boots and a water bottle. The scene is indoors with chairs in the background.
Two women smiling indoors. The older woman wears glasses, a colorful scarf, and a pink outfit. Karen Gonzalez Rice, with long hair, wears a blue sweater. They stand close together in front of a window and a potted plant.
A person in a pink, patterned outfit lies on the floor with a bottle nearby. Another person in white clothing walks in the background, partially obscured by a wooden pillar. The setting appears to be indoors with a staircase visible.

Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, 2011

7-Hour Gland-a-Thon with Linda Montano
Curator

In particular, Dr. Karen Gonzalez Rice’s research examines the histories, stakes, and consequences of endurance art, an extreme form of performance art that holds a prominent place in contemporary art history.  Endurance artists perform long-term actions, submit to pain or hardship, test their bodies’ physical and psychic capacities, and practice patience. 

Karen’s approach to this challenging subject matter is deeply rooted in traditional art historical methods, including visual analysis, biography, and historical context.

At the same time, her research questions stretch beyond art history to engage with cross-disciplinary preoccupations and debates about the ethical stakes of representation, the political possibilities of performance, the lived experience of visuality, and more.

Two people smiling in a room, one with long curly hair in a pink coat and colorful scarf, the other with short blue hair wearing a dark shirt and gray cardigan. A framed portrait hangs on the wall behind them.

St. Francis House, New London, Connecticut, 2015

MONEY IS GREEN TOO with Linda Montano
Curator

An elderly woman with long gray hair and glasses is reading from a red book. She is wearing a bright pink top, an orange scarf, and an embroidered shawl. The room has a table with a projector and framed art on the walls.
Two people smiling at the camera. The person on the right is holding a handwritten sign that reads, ASK A TRANNY. They are standing outdoors, possibly outside a building.

Connecticut College, 2013
Photos by Em Miller

Ask a Tranny with Kris Grey
Curator

A person holding a sign that says “ASK” with rest obscured engages with a group of people outdoors. The group is wearing casual clothing, and they appear to be listening attentively.

Most recently, Dr. Karen Gonzalez Rice’s research has been informed by her transformative experience as a Mellon New Directions Fellow at Gallaudet University, where she pursued training in Deaf studies and disability studies, participating as a guest in Deaf communities, learning two new disciplines, and developing academic discourse-level skill in American Sign Language. 

This experience has clarified for her the ableist foundations of art history, challenged her thinking about endurance art, and generated entirely new perspectives and new questions that she will be grappling with for the rest of her career.

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Research Areas

Performance Art & Performance Studies

What becomes possible when artists use their bodies as the material of art?

Endurance Art

Why do endurance artists perform long-term actions, submit to pain or hardship, and test their bodies’ physical and psychic capacities?

Contemporary Art & Religion

How does our understanding of contemporary art change when we take religion seriously in the forms, content, and contexts of art?

Trauma & Representation in Contemporary Art

How and why is trauma made visible in contemporary art?

What visual strategies shape how trauma is represented and witnessed?

American Art & American Studies

What are the particular conditions of artmaking in the United States?

How do artists navigate intersectional identities, local histories, and meaning-making in American contexts?

Museum, Art, & Ethics

What are our responsibilities in making, viewing, and collecting art in the 21st century?

How can museums serve as labs for creative connection, accessibility, and liberation in our current historical moment?

Whiteness in Contemporary Art & Its Consequences

How has whiteness shaped the forms and content of contemporary art? 

How are artists and scholars creating more expansive, inclusive possibilities? 

Deafness, Disability & Visual Representation

How might scholars in art history and Deaf studies open new perspectives to one another?

What speculative futures might we envision across art history and disability cultures?