Karen Donnellan is an Irish-born, interdisciplinary artist based in Alfred, NY. Her practice is concerned with illustrating that which cannot be physically held. While she uses a wide range of media, glass and sound are central to this endeavor. Donnellan has participated in numerous residencies including Pilchuck Glass School; Toledo Museum of Art; Cill Rialaig Artist Retreat; Bullseye Glass Company; Edinburgh College of Art, and the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Her work has been shown at venues internationally, including the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, the Tushanwan Museum, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Karen is a past recipient of the Langley Kenzie Endowment Award as well as the Glass Art Society Saxe Emerging Artist Lecture. Her work is featured in Young Glass 2017, a once-a-decade international traveling exhibition for artists under 35 working with glass. She also recently embarked on a collaboration with artists Xu Bing and Andrew Deutsch for a participatory project titled Landscape Residue. Donnellan earned a Bachelors of Design from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY. Karen is Assistant Professor of Glass, and Director of the National Casting Center Glass Facility at Alfred University, NY.