The expan­sive sculp­tures of Karla Black are of an ambigu­ously fragile beauty. Deli­cate pastel shades and films, light, and reflec­tions lend them an impres­sion of weight­less­ness despite their large formats.

The works vacil­late between instal­la­tion, painting, and perfor­mance and ulti­mately aspire to be inde­pen­dent sculp­tures. The Scot­tish artist works with everyday mate­rials and cosmetics, with paint, gypsum powder, and trans­parent adhe­sive tape, with Vase­line, lipstick, and nail varnish. The texture, the “feel” of the substance, is deci­sive in her choice. Black installs her loca­tion-specific sculp­tures herself; rubbing, smearing, and mixing, she works with her hands. She under­stands this direct explo­ration of the mate­rial as a form of commu­ni­ca­tion and as a means of under­standing the world around her. For the SCHIRN the artist will develop a new three-dimen­sional sculp­ture for the publicly acces­sible Rotunda.

Karla Black (*1972 in Alexan­dria, Scot­land) lives and works in Glasgow. In 2011 she repre­sented Scot­land at the 54th Bien­nale in Venice and was nomi­nated for the Turner Prize during the same year. Her works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhi­bi­tions.