Karla Black
27 Jun - 02 Nov 2025
Karla Black, 'The Academy', 2023, installation view 'Karla Black', The New Art Gallery Walsall, 2023, Photo Ilona Zielinska of Elona Photographer, © Karla Black, Courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne and Modern Art, London
Karla Black (born in 1972) moves between worlds in her sculptural practice in several ways: Her works are spatial experiences that draw freely and casually from the fields of painting, installation, environment and performance. The palette of her materials seems almost endless, as she not only draws on traditional art materials such as acrylic paint, pigment or plaster, but also incorporates any materials from the everyday world that serve her purpose, such as plastic film, soap, make-up or cotton wool. On the one hand, her method of production arises from the concrete conditions of the respective architecture; on the other, she responds intuitively, playfully and sensitively to a realm beyond language, such as the unconscious or a child’s experience of the world.
This creates immersive exhibition set-ups which, through the use of materials within the sculptures, generate a fine line undulating between the fragile and the strong, between the ephemeral and the permanent. In the production process Black is as little interested in material hierarchies as she is in cultural connotations, such as those of the make-up. Her concern is solely with the materials she can apply and the appearance she can create. Subjecting the materials to her creative will, she doesn’t linger over their usual use – as, for example, when she crushes bath balls and uses the resultant powder as a floor covering.
Black by no means thereby negates meanings or traditions inherent in the materials. On the contrary, through the unusual use of materials in abstract forms, in seeming chaos amidst well-structured spatial design, and in the gestural emphasis on the tactile, she affords us a special opportunity to see ourselves reflected in the materials. How we perceive and understand Black’s works is largely dependent on our own experience and valuation of familiar materials. As this varies with cultural background, education and interest, viewing her works leads to very different outcomes.
For the former assembly hall of the Kunstraum Dornbirn, Karla Black has designed a unique, site-specific compilation of existing and new sculptures that incorporates the space’s distinctive monumental dimensions and lighting.
Biography Karla Black was born in 1972 in Alexandria, UK, and lives and works in Glasgow, UK. She represented Scotland at the 57th Venice Biennale (2011) and her work was exhibited at Manifesta 10 at St Petersburg (2014). Her immersive, often site-specific installations have been shown at numerous solo exhibitions, for example at the Bechtler Foundation, Uster (2024), New Art Gallery Walsall (2023), Modern Art Gallery, London (2022), Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2021), Des Moines Art Centre (2020), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2019), Le Festival d’Automne, Paris (2017), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (2017), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2016), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016), Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (2013), Dallas Museum of Art (2012) and Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2012).
This creates immersive exhibition set-ups which, through the use of materials within the sculptures, generate a fine line undulating between the fragile and the strong, between the ephemeral and the permanent. In the production process Black is as little interested in material hierarchies as she is in cultural connotations, such as those of the make-up. Her concern is solely with the materials she can apply and the appearance she can create. Subjecting the materials to her creative will, she doesn’t linger over their usual use – as, for example, when she crushes bath balls and uses the resultant powder as a floor covering.
Black by no means thereby negates meanings or traditions inherent in the materials. On the contrary, through the unusual use of materials in abstract forms, in seeming chaos amidst well-structured spatial design, and in the gestural emphasis on the tactile, she affords us a special opportunity to see ourselves reflected in the materials. How we perceive and understand Black’s works is largely dependent on our own experience and valuation of familiar materials. As this varies with cultural background, education and interest, viewing her works leads to very different outcomes.
For the former assembly hall of the Kunstraum Dornbirn, Karla Black has designed a unique, site-specific compilation of existing and new sculptures that incorporates the space’s distinctive monumental dimensions and lighting.
Biography Karla Black was born in 1972 in Alexandria, UK, and lives and works in Glasgow, UK. She represented Scotland at the 57th Venice Biennale (2011) and her work was exhibited at Manifesta 10 at St Petersburg (2014). Her immersive, often site-specific installations have been shown at numerous solo exhibitions, for example at the Bechtler Foundation, Uster (2024), New Art Gallery Walsall (2023), Modern Art Gallery, London (2022), Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2021), Des Moines Art Centre (2020), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2019), Le Festival d’Automne, Paris (2017), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (2017), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2016), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016), Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (2013), Dallas Museum of Art (2012) and Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2012).