Virtual Galleries

Karli Waagenes Johnsen was born in Stavanger, Norway in 1902. Around 1926, she emigrated, then in 1928 came to Brooklyn, New York. She was an artist and craftswoman who worked with different mediums including oils, watercolors, acrylics, silk screen, ceramics, wood sculpture, porcelain, beaded tiles, clay masks, and cut-paper collages. She was also an accomplished photographer. She had her own studio in Brooklyn called Karli’s Studio where she taught rosemaling for many years. A proficient seamstress, she designed and sewed the dresses worn by the King of Norway’s daughters at the 1939 World’s Fair. After her second marriage, she moved to New Fairfield, Connecticut where she became interested in ceramics and clay sculpture and studied under the talented and well-known artist Kaja Melander of Whitestone, New York. Johnsen died in New Fairfield, Connecticut in 1994.