Karen Moss has been drawing and painting since childhood. She was born in Boston and then moved to Toledo, Ohio where she attended elementary and high school. She returned to Boston and graduated from Newton, HS before going on to Rhode Island School of Design where she received a BFA with honors in painting. Her senior year in college was spent in Rome Italy, followed by a year in London where she worked independently on her art.

After working briefly as an art educator she received an MFA in Painting at Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She then continued employment at a number of colleges and universities including:Wheelock College, Massachusetts College of Art, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Harvard University.

She has exhibited in numerous public institutions and private galleries, a partial list includes :The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, The Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover.MA, Leah Levy Gallery,San Francisco, Wolfe Street Gallery, Washington,DC, Addison-Ripley Gallery, Washington, DC, Kathryn Markel Fine Art, NYC, Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, Clark University, Worcester, MA, Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, MA, Pepper Gallery, Boston, MA, Lesley University Cambridge, MA and Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.

Moss' work is included in the following public and private collections:The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, The Museum of Fine Arts,Boston, The Graham Gund Collection, Wellington Management, Boston, MA, Fidelity Management, Company, Boston,The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock,AK, Rhode island School of Design Museum, Providence,RI, Bank of America Corp, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Vassar College Museum, Poughkeepsie, NY, Boston Public Library, and Smith College Museum, Northampton, MA.

She has received a Blanche E Coleman Award, and has been a finalist for The Bunting Institute Fellowship, Harvard University, a finalist for the Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation Award, and American Pen Women. She received a commission from the MBTA for an outdoor mural on the Green Line overpass at North Station in Boston.

Her art has been reviewed in publications such as Artforum, Art in America, Art New England, Artscope Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The New York Sun, The Real Paper and the Maine Times.