Klara Kristalova
27 Feb - 11 Apr 2009
KLARA KRISTALOVA
“Where The Owls Spend Their Days”
27 February – 11 April 2009
Opening Thursday 26 February, 6-8pm
“Kristalova steers clear of the rhetorical aspects of art, and instead deals with the small narratives, dreams and nightmares that everyday life is full of. She is drawn to an invisible part of everyday existence, to a realm where our expectations take shape, where neuroses bloom and memories mutate. This often results in her work acquiring a bizarre, slightly unsettling quality. Who would, after all, want to come face to face with the physical embodiment of one’s own inner demons?” Anders Olofsson, Klara Kristalova Sculptures, published by Karlsson / Perrotin, 2007.
Alison Jacques Gallery is pleased to announce the first London solo exhibition of the Czech-born artist Klara Kristalova who lives and works in Sweden. Working with plaster, bronze, wood and ceramics, often in proportions traditionally associated with ornamental objects, the artist’s expressionist renderings of figures, heads and torsos, frequently allude to sinister psychological narratives. Kristalova is a storyteller who uses the plasticity of sculpture to conjure allegories, dreams and nightmares that are evocative of fairytales or folklore. Her iconography includes trees and snow capped forests, toadstools, and a host of animals that exist alongside more surreal objects such as a half-gloved hand or isolated facial features.
In Kristalova’s London exhibition, the main gallery space is dominated by a tall shelved display cabinet in which sit a number of glazed clay sculptures of various sizes. This piece of furniture not only explores traditional modes of display for ceramic objects but also refers to the psyche, with the individual pieces within and around it signifying different states of mind.
Often depicted as suffocating or drowning, Kristalova’s cast of characters frequently express feelings of entrapment. The artist morphs or collapses figures into natural forms; hands and feet are extended with tree-like protrusions that suggest both a separation of the figures from their surroundings, and a connection to nature. The brittle qualities of ceramic accentuate and highlight Kristalova’s characters’ imagined social awkwardness and physical fragility.
Klara Kristalova (Born 1967) lives and works in Norrtälje, Sweden. Recent solo exhibitions include Short Stories, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris (2008) and Catastrophes and Other Everyday Events, Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, (2007). Group shows include Past, Present, Future Perfect: Selections from the Ovitz Family Collection, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City (2008) and Makers and modelers, Gladstone Gallery, New York (2007). Forthcoming solo shows include SITE Santa Fe, USA (2009). Kristalova will also participate in Expanded Fields of Possibilities, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum and Sortilèges, Fondation pour l’art contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon, France (2009). Kristalova’s work is featured in public collections including Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
“Where The Owls Spend Their Days”
27 February – 11 April 2009
Opening Thursday 26 February, 6-8pm
“Kristalova steers clear of the rhetorical aspects of art, and instead deals with the small narratives, dreams and nightmares that everyday life is full of. She is drawn to an invisible part of everyday existence, to a realm where our expectations take shape, where neuroses bloom and memories mutate. This often results in her work acquiring a bizarre, slightly unsettling quality. Who would, after all, want to come face to face with the physical embodiment of one’s own inner demons?” Anders Olofsson, Klara Kristalova Sculptures, published by Karlsson / Perrotin, 2007.
Alison Jacques Gallery is pleased to announce the first London solo exhibition of the Czech-born artist Klara Kristalova who lives and works in Sweden. Working with plaster, bronze, wood and ceramics, often in proportions traditionally associated with ornamental objects, the artist’s expressionist renderings of figures, heads and torsos, frequently allude to sinister psychological narratives. Kristalova is a storyteller who uses the plasticity of sculpture to conjure allegories, dreams and nightmares that are evocative of fairytales or folklore. Her iconography includes trees and snow capped forests, toadstools, and a host of animals that exist alongside more surreal objects such as a half-gloved hand or isolated facial features.
In Kristalova’s London exhibition, the main gallery space is dominated by a tall shelved display cabinet in which sit a number of glazed clay sculptures of various sizes. This piece of furniture not only explores traditional modes of display for ceramic objects but also refers to the psyche, with the individual pieces within and around it signifying different states of mind.
Often depicted as suffocating or drowning, Kristalova’s cast of characters frequently express feelings of entrapment. The artist morphs or collapses figures into natural forms; hands and feet are extended with tree-like protrusions that suggest both a separation of the figures from their surroundings, and a connection to nature. The brittle qualities of ceramic accentuate and highlight Kristalova’s characters’ imagined social awkwardness and physical fragility.
Klara Kristalova (Born 1967) lives and works in Norrtälje, Sweden. Recent solo exhibitions include Short Stories, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris (2008) and Catastrophes and Other Everyday Events, Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, (2007). Group shows include Past, Present, Future Perfect: Selections from the Ovitz Family Collection, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City (2008) and Makers and modelers, Gladstone Gallery, New York (2007). Forthcoming solo shows include SITE Santa Fe, USA (2009). Kristalova will also participate in Expanded Fields of Possibilities, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum and Sortilèges, Fondation pour l’art contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon, France (2009). Kristalova’s work is featured in public collections including Moderna Museet, Stockholm.