Sculptor, painter, print-maker, KarenLaub-Novak constantly searched the traditions of the old masters, yet her work is new and personal. Executives, poets, professors, and a number of college presidents own her paintings, and her work is represented in many permanent collections.

Group shows include American Associated Artists, NYC; American Federation of Arts Traveling Print show; Art in Embassy Exhibits. In February 1999 her work was included in the Black History Month art exhibit "Hope in Our City" at Union Station, Washington, D.C. Foxhall Gallery in Washington, D.C. exhibits her paintings and prints.

Previous exhibits have included work inspired by poets including T.S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Dante, and the author of the "Apocalypse." Laub-Novak is also working on a series of paintings and prints based on Rainer Maria Rilke's "Duino Elegies." She has been printing these lithographs at the Curwen Studios in England.

Laub-Novak executed, on commission for a public park, a twelve-foot bronze sculpture of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Norman E. Borlaug. Her most recent commission is a bronze head of Alexander Hamilton. Castings of this Hamilton bust are in public and private collections.

Other commissions include a bronze statuette awarded in honor of Dr. Borlaug for scientific achievement in bio-technology; a bronze liturgical crucifix for a Grand Rapids, Michigan church, also presented to Pope John Paul II; a bronze medallion for the Becket Fund; and glass or bronze awards for other organizations. She has done portraits (drawings and oils) on commission, including an official portrait of the director of OMB for the old Executive Office Building.

Laub-Novak's work is represented in public and private collections including Continental Bank of Chicago, Yale University, Stonehill College, St. Vincent's Archabbey in Pennsylvania, and the estate of Cardinal Spellman. Laub-Novak has given lectures and workshops at colleges, universities and institutes including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Carleton, the Aspen Institute, and the Salzburg Seminar. She was keynote speaker for Wisconsin Women in the Arts, and the Earl Lecturer at the Pacific School of Religion.

The artist's illustrations have appeared in magazines (including Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Crisis and Motive), books, newspapers, and filmstrips. She has illustrated children's books, published 40 drawings in A Book of Elements, and designed many book covers. Nine color reproductions of her work appeared in the December 1966 issue of Motive Magazine. An etching, The Secular Saint, was reproduced on the cover of the May 1968 issue of The Center Magazine (From the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions).

Laub-Novak has editioned several series of lithographs on famous texts: seventeen on The Apocalypse; six on T.S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday"; six on The Book of Genesis; and to date, eight lithographs on Rainier Marie Rilke's "Duino Elegies." Her essays and reviews have appeared in educational, theological and general interest magazines. Her essay, "The Art of Deception," was written for the book Art Creativity and the Sacred. She was also a guest editor for Momentum Magazine, which published her essay "The Habits of Art."

While earning a BA from Carleton College and MFA in painting and printmaking from the State University of Iowa, she studied painting with Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg, Austria, printmaking with Mauricio Lasansky, and poetry writing at the Iowa writers' workshop.

Laub-Novak has taught art and humanities at Carleton, Stanford, Syracuse, Georgetown, Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., University of California-Riverside, Impressions Studio in Boston, and CIDOC in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Laub-Novak was married to Michael Novak and they had three children - Jana, Tanya and Rich. She is a Kent-Danforth fellow and has been listed in Outstanding Young Women of America and Who's Who in Art.

As a teacher and lecturer, Laub-Novak enjoyed helping others gain understanding and pleasure through the skillful use of their eyes, minds, and emotions. She placd great emphasis on classical disciplines as guides to insight and self-expression. Conscious of the many painful steps in the growth of her own work, she is unusually articulate about art and how to understand it.

Laub-Novak died of cancer August 12, 2009 at her home in the Washington, D.C. You can read more about Karen’s life HERE.