"My art is not just about horses. It's about Strength of Spirit."
- Elizabeth King Hale, co-founder of KingHale Gallery
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth King Hale is an American painter whose practice centers on the horse as a recurring formal and symbolic subject. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas, where she began developing a studio practice rooted in large-scale equestrian works informed by both classical composition and gestural abstraction with influences from Jackson Pollock.
In 2001, with her husband, Dr. Jan Hale, King Hale co-founded the KingHale Gallery in Sarasota, Florida which operated as a multidisciplinary exhibition space, presenting artists including Betty Hudson, Esther Wertheimer, Lucy Bilodeau, Micole Bredean, Linda Kauffmann, and Marie-Louise Keralla.
Following the 2008 financial downturn, King Hale and her family relocated to the American Southwest, where the landscape and regional artistic traditions informed a shift in her visual language. During this period, she co-founded the Santa Fe Pony Express in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an art and design gallery focused on a mix of fine art and native material culture.
In 2018, the couple returned to Florida and reestablished the KingHale Gallery in Tarpon Springs. King Hale temporarily expanded her practice to include wearable works while developing the Freedom Collection, a monumental acrylic-on-canvas series reflecting on modern events, using the horse as a recurring symbol of liberty, resilience, and the enduring pursuit of truth.
Earlier works were exhibited under the name Karen King before she adopted the professional name Elizabeth King Hale around this time. Her work is held in private collections across the United States and internationally.
EXHIBITIONS
2026 – Freedom Fest, Upcoming Las Vegas Exhibition
2023 – Spring Bayou, Tarpon Art Fair
2022 – Chamber Television, News Segment
2020-2024 – Cassanova Boutique Feature, Naples
2018 – Westward Gallery, Jewelry Showcase
2015 – Maverick Decor Feature, Pagosa Springs
2014-2017 – Southwest Elegance Gallery, Feature
2014 – Old Town Albuquerque, Gallery Feature
2014-2015 – Loreto Chapel, Indian Market Exhibition
2014-2015 – Santa Fe Square, Art Fair
2010-2015 – Wild Spirit Gallery, Pagosa Springs
2006 – Sarasota Vault Depository, Gallery Exhibition
2002 – Joy Gallery, Key West Feature
1997 – Boatmen's Bank, Annual Art Show
1995 – International Arabian Horse Show, Scottsdale Exhibition
1994 – World Championship Kentucky Horse Show, Louisville Exhibition
1991 – The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, Exhibition
1990 – Health Club Feature, Tyler
1975 – Carnegie Library Feature & Local Television News, Faces and Places
1975 – Carnegie Library, Mural
PRESS
"Artist Karen King of the new-ish KingHale Gallery in downtown Sarasota offers this tip on buying art. “If you absolutely fall in love with a piece of art then it’s for you. Don’t worry what anyone else may think or that it may not fit your existing decor. Find a place for it and create around it. The point is, you slowly surround yourself with things that communicate to you and make you feel good. When it’s aesthetic communication you will feel good and then anything is possible." King’s equestrian art is lacquer and enamel on hardboard and is “more about energy than horses." If pressed, King describes her style as “neo-classical semi-abstract” but notes that “you don’t have to love horses to love these images.”
-"Homefront - February 2002." Sarasota Magazine (Home & Real Estate), February 1, 2002. By staff. https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/home-and-real-estate/2002/02/homefront-62.
MY CHAMBER TV Interview, 2022
ARTIST STATEMENT
"Have you ever seen a horse racing the wind, and felt that exhilarating sense of Freedom, as if you can fly without wings over the world just like in a dream? This moment, this feeling, is what I wish to capture and communicate through my art with a balance of style and subject matter.
I focus on Horses because they symbolize Freedom and all that is good. They are powerful, yet humble, strong, yet gentle. They are stoic, patient, and kind, as they honor mankind with loyalty, grace, and dignity.
I grew up on a lake in East Texas surrounded by water, woods, and wildlife. I was especially fond of the raccoons who were my best friends. When I was thirteen I sold my childhood treasures at a garage sale and seventy-five dollars later I had the horse of my dreams. He was a swirling mass of mane and tail, young spirited and half wild. I always rode bareback, and because he had a habit of bucking while running full speed through the woods, I frequently found myself on the ground or hanging from a tree. I could have used a saddle but I liked the freedom and spontaneity of being able to run out the back door at a moment's notice, jump on the horse and fly away.
Today I paint with this same kind of fearless abandon. I trust myself and never hold back. We control our own destiny whether we take responsibility for it or not. Wise choices often take courage. My dream is that I will always meet life's challenges with the same freedom, integrity, and strength of spirit that is reflected in my paintings."
-Elizabeth King Hale