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I use impermanent and raw materials like paper, polythene, plaster powder, and cosmetic products in my sculptures not because they easily change and decay but because I want the energy, life, and movement that they give. I would much rather have the sculptures stay exactly as they are the moment I finish making them.
- Karla Black
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I think that, although my works, in the end, are always sculptures, the process is painterly. It's very formal and aesthetic, the main concern is the relation of material to form to colour to composition. I'm conscious of a lot of painterly gestures when making my work - expressionism, abstract expressionism, modernist abstract aesthetics, marks made by Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Clifford Still etc. Mostly the aesthetics of painting is a gauge for me in terms of how to make a 'good' work. I say to myself, as I get close to finishing each artwork,‘If this was a painting would it be a good painting?’ If I can say yes, then the work is complete.
- Karla Black
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Selected institutional exhibitions
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Karla Black's numerous solo exhibitions include 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); Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2012) among others.
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