Karla Black

Karla Black (born 1972) is a Scottish sculptor who creates abstract three-dimensional artworks that explore the physicality of materials as a way of understanding and communicating the world around us.

Karla Black
Born1972 (age 50–51)
Alexandria, Dunbartonshire
EducationBFA in sculpture (1999); MPhil in art in organisational contexts (2000); MFA in fine arts (2004), all from Glasgow School of Art.
OccupationScottish sculptor

In 2011, Black was nominated for the Turner Prize[1] and also represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale.[2] Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover, Germany; the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia; the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; the Dallas Museum of Art; and the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Modern Art Oxford and Kunsthalle Nurnberg, Germany. Black represented Scotland at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.[3]

Early life and education

Black was born 1972 in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire and studied Sculpture at The Glasgow School of Art from 1995 to 1999.[4] From there, Black gained an MPhil in Art in Organisational Contexts from the year 1999 to 2000, as well as an MFA in fine arts from 2002 to 2004.[4]

Artistic style

Black uses mostly traditional art-making materials such as plaster, paint, paper and chalk in her work, along with a small amount of substances such as cosmetics and toiletries. Her sculptures are either 'almost' or 'only just' objects and skirt the mediums of sculpture, painting, performance art and installation, often juxtaposing large scale with a fragility of form.

She utilises and plays with the physical properties of a wide array of materials, which she seeks to use in an aesthetically pleasing, yet raw and unformed way. Although Black identifies as a sculptor, her use of everyday matter mixed with traditional art materials works to expand the parameters of sculpture. According to Black, her works exist and operate as "almost painting, almost installation, almost performance art."[4]

Black cites the influence of psychoanalytical theory on her work: she has a particular interest in the writings of Melanie Klein (1882–1960) who pioneered early developments in child psychology. Black has said: "The sculptures are rooted in Psychoanalysis and Feminism; in theories about the violent and sexual underpinnings of both individual mental mess, as in neuroses and psychosis, and the formlessness of specific points in art history, i.e. German and Abstract Expressionism, Viennese Actionism, Land Art, Anti-form and Feminist Performance."[5]

In one of Black's pieces entitled "Made to Wait" (2009), a cellophane sheet is seen floating as an invisible screen with a band of paint and other cosmetic products smeared over it, covering its lower half. According to the Guggenheim, this piece is "elusive and stable" while "the work is grounded in its materiality as a physical experience and resists any metaphorical or symbolic meaning."[6]

Blacks work is in the collections of the Arts Council Collection London, [7] the Dallas Museum of Art, [8] the David Roberts Art Foundation, [9] the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, [10] the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,[4] the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,[11] the Southbank Centre,[12] and the Tate.[13]

Publications
  • Karla Black (2010), Karla Black: It's Proof That Counts, JRP/Ringier, ISBN 978-3-03764-084-5
  • Karla Black: ten sculptures, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, 2010.
  • Briony Fer, Karla Black – Brains Are Really Everything, Scotland + Venice 2011, 4 June – 27 November 2011, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
  • Susanne Figner and Barry Schwabsky, Karla Black, Walther Konig, Koln, 2014.
  • Kate Kraczon, Karla Black: Practically in Shadow, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 2015.
  • Karla Black & Kishio Suga: A New Order, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2017.

References
  1. "Turner Prize 2011". Tate. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  2. "Karla Black – collateral event of the 54th Venice Biennale". e-flux.com. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  3. Higgins, Charlotte (31 May 2011). "Karla Black at the Venice Biennale: 'Don't call my art feminine'". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  4. "Karla Black". National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  5. "'At Fault', Karla Black, 2011". Tate. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  6. "Collection Online Karl Black". Guggenheim. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  7. "Unused To". Arts Council Collection. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  8. "Karla Black: Concentrations 55". Dallas Museum of Art. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  9. "What To Ask Of Others, 2008". The Roberts Institute of Art. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  10. "RISD Museum receives significant gift of contemporary artworks from collectors Avo Samuelian and Manuel Gonzalez | RISD Museum". RISD Museum. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  11. "Make Yourself Necessary". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  12. "Unused To". Art UK. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  13. "Vanity Matters". Art UK. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
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