Karla Black
24 Jun - 22 Aug 2010
KARLA BLACK
Ten sculptures
24 June-22 August 2010
Scottish artist Karla Black, who will be representing her country at the Venice Biennial in 2011, is showing her most comprehensive individual exhibition to date – encompassing ten space-consuming sculptures – in the Kunsthalle Nürnberg.
She produces her complex ensembles in situ on principle, always relating them to the relevant architectonic and social context. The flat floor sculptures suggest extensive landscapes covered in powdery colour, the monumental cubes made of various types of earth or sawdust resemble a layer cake, and the large-scale standing sculptures constructed from sheets of paper appear to float in space.
Their weight lends the sculptures a material presence, but they are simultaneously ephemeral and extremely fragile. The aesthetics of this vulnerable beauty give them a seductive quality. They are all formed and coloured using loose material such as plaster of Paris, soil, sawdust, make-up, face powder, Vaseline or nail varnish. Karla Black makes stylistic reference to Arte Povera, Land, and Minimal Art in her sculptures, and they may also remind us of the remains of performances; however, the works cannot really be attributed to any of these categories. Karla Black extends the classical concept of sculpture with her process-oriented, performative handling of materials with different cultural encoding, rather untypical of sculpture.
Karla Black (*1972 Alexandria/Scotland) studied art and philosophy in Nuremberg's partner city Glasgow, where she continues to live and work today. The exhibition in the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, her most comprehensive individual presentation to date, follows exhibitions in the Migros Museum Zurich, Modern Art Oxford, and Inverleith Gallery Edinburgh.
Ten sculptures
24 June-22 August 2010
Scottish artist Karla Black, who will be representing her country at the Venice Biennial in 2011, is showing her most comprehensive individual exhibition to date – encompassing ten space-consuming sculptures – in the Kunsthalle Nürnberg.
She produces her complex ensembles in situ on principle, always relating them to the relevant architectonic and social context. The flat floor sculptures suggest extensive landscapes covered in powdery colour, the monumental cubes made of various types of earth or sawdust resemble a layer cake, and the large-scale standing sculptures constructed from sheets of paper appear to float in space.
Their weight lends the sculptures a material presence, but they are simultaneously ephemeral and extremely fragile. The aesthetics of this vulnerable beauty give them a seductive quality. They are all formed and coloured using loose material such as plaster of Paris, soil, sawdust, make-up, face powder, Vaseline or nail varnish. Karla Black makes stylistic reference to Arte Povera, Land, and Minimal Art in her sculptures, and they may also remind us of the remains of performances; however, the works cannot really be attributed to any of these categories. Karla Black extends the classical concept of sculpture with her process-oriented, performative handling of materials with different cultural encoding, rather untypical of sculpture.
Karla Black (*1972 Alexandria/Scotland) studied art and philosophy in Nuremberg's partner city Glasgow, where she continues to live and work today. The exhibition in the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, her most comprehensive individual presentation to date, follows exhibitions in the Migros Museum Zurich, Modern Art Oxford, and Inverleith Gallery Edinburgh.