JavaScript is required

Cart (0)

We use cookies and other technologies to personalize your experience and collect analytics.

Privacy policy

Karla Black

For the past twenty years, Karla Black has been making sculptures that explore the physical and psychic properties of the materials that populate her everyday life. Black’s sculptures come from modest means: paper, cellophane, cosmetics and other household, ready-to-hand substances (bath bombs, Gaviscon, soil, polystyrene, Sellotape, and Vaseline, for example) are her materials of choice, employed for their visual and tactile properties, as opposed to any overt referential significance. These materials are processed and worked through to the limits of their physical parameters, becoming unrecognizable and utterly unique forms, shapes and structures that hover mid-air from the ceiling, attach to walls or other features of the space, or cover the surface of the ground or walls in chalky, pastel colours. Black connects working on this horizontal plane to the floor bound years of early childhood, citing the exploration of this experience in the psychoanalytic texts of Melanie Klein as influences on her process. Black’s sculptures fix the moment of creation itself, and in doing so build on a legacy of modern art that includes Lynda Benglis’s pours and Helen Frankenthaler’s stains. This way of working might be described as automatic, guided mostly by Black’s unconscious intuition and her response to the pre-existing visual and spatial features of the architecture surrounding them, which can be playful, overwhelming, exploratory and effusive.

Karla Black was born in 1972 in Alexandria, Scotland, and lives and works in Glasgow. She has mounted recent solo exhibitions at Bechtler Stiftung (2024); Des Moines Art Center (2020); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2019); The Power Plant, Toronto (2018); Museum DhondtDhaenens, Deurle (2017); and Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (2016). In 2011, she was nominated for the Turner Prize. The same year, she represented Scotland at the 54th Venice Biennale. In 2021, Black inaugurated Edinburgh’s renovated Fruitmarket Gallery with the survey exhibition sculptures (2001 – 2021): details for a retrospective. Her works are held in collections including Centre Pompidou, Paris; Dallas Museum of Art; Des Moines Art Center; Kunstmuseum Den Haag; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Tate, London.

Press
Biography
The Academy, 2023, The New Art Gallery Walsall
Platonic Solid, 2009
Modern Art Oxford
1/3
At Fault, 2011
cellophane, paint, sellotape, plaster powder, powder paint, sugar paper, chalk, bath bombs, ribbon, wood, dimensions variable
1/3
Necessity, 2012
cellophane, sellotape, paint, body moisturisers, cosmetics, 900 x 1350 cm, 354 3/8 x 531 1/2 in
1/3
Times, 2014
sugar paper, chalk, ribbon, body paint, nail varnish, 202 x 470 cm, 79 1/2 x 185 1/8 in
1/3
Easily Asked, 2014
polythene, powder paint, plaster powder, thread, 196 x 161 x 143 cm, 77 1/8 x 63 3/8 x 56 1/4 in
1/3
Unprepare, 2017
glass, vaseline, paint, metal chain, clay 33 x 42 x 3 cm 13 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/8 ins
Adds Up, 2017
glass, vaseline, plaster, clay, scrim, 137 x 92 x 30 cm, 54 x 36 1/4 x 11 3/4 in
1/3
Reason To Appear, 2019
glass paint on door, 198.2 x 68.6 x 3.6 cm, 78 1/8 x 27 1/8 x 1 3/8 in
1/3
Presumption Prevails, 2017
sugar paper, plaster powder, powder paint, cotton wool rolls, Cellophane, emulsion paint, acrylic paint, chalk, ribbon, 800 x 770 x 723 cm, 315 x 303 1/8 x 284 5/8 in
1/3
This Time, 2020
cartridge paper, coloured pencil, thread, 30.5 x 32.4 x 6.9 cm, 12 1/8 x 12 3/4 x 2 3/4 in
1/3
Comfort in Common, 2022
cartridge paper and watercolour ink, 183 x 79 x 41 cm, 72 1/8 x 31 1/8 x 16 1/8 in
1/3
The Academy, 2023
cartridge paper, watercolour ink, plaster powder, powder paint, ribbon
1/2
Viva Arte Viva, 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2017
Kestnergesellschaft, 2013-14

Press

Art ReviewThe Return of Rococo in Contemporary Culture, 1 November 2022
WallpaperKarla Black's material ambush at revamped Fruitmarket Gallery, 7 July 2021
QuietusMessthetics: An Interview with Karla Black, 21 August 2021
ScotsmanArt review: Karla Black, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 22 July 2021
Financial TimesFresh space for fruitful creativity, 21 July 2021
Art UKRaw materials: an interview with Karla Black, 7 July 2021
Art FundKarla Black and Tony Swain on 20 years of making, 23 July 2021
Artforum1 January 2020
SchirnThere is little in art that doesn't exist, 16 November 2019
GlossiKarla Black: Liminality & Metamodernism at the Power Plant, 3 December 2018
ApolloThe sculptures that dare to mean nothing at all, 23 March 2018
ARTnews'I work purely out of desire': Karla Black conjures ethereal beauty at David Zwirner, 23 March 2016
Artforum3 February 2014
Artforum1 May 2013
Art Now1 January 2013
The IndependentHer bright materials, 17 April 2012
The Independent29 February 2012
Mousse1 February 2012
The HeraldBlack and the gold, 3 June 2011
Modern Painterssites to behold, 1 October 2011
Art MonthlyReview: You, Me, Something Else, 1 December 2011
AestheticaThoughtless Gestures + Obsessive Beauty , 1 June 2011
The HeraldBeyond Words, 18 December 2010
Artforum30 September 2009
Frieze9 September 2008
Frieze1 October 2007
Frieze4 March 2005

Biography

Karla Black

Born in Alexandria, 1972 Lives and works in Glasgow

Education

2002 - 2004
Master of Fine Art
Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
1999 - 2000
Master of Philosophy (Art in Organisational Contexts)
Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
1995 - 1999
BA (Hons) Fine Art
Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow

Solo Exhibitions

2025
Gisela Capitain
Cologne, Germany (forthcoming)
Galerie Mezzanin
Geneva, Switzerland (forthcoming)
Kunstraum Dornbirn
Dornbirn, Austria (forthcoming)
2024
Bechtler StiftungUster, Switzerland
2022
Modern Art
London
2021
2020
Karla Black: 20 YearsDes Moines Art Centre, Des Moines, IA, USA
2019
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
Frankfurt, Germany
Galerie Gisela Capitain
Cologne, Germany
2018
The Power Plant
Toronto, Canada
Capitain Petzel
Berlin, Germany
2017
Modern Art
London
Le Festival d’Automne à ParisPalais des Beaux-Arts / Musée des Archives Nationales, Paris, France
Museum Dhondt-DhaenensDeurle, Belgium
2016
Principles of AdmittingMigros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland
Then it's over and we're supposed to go away.
Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Italy
David Zwirner
New York, NY, USA
Galerie Gisela Capitain
Cologne, Germany
2015
2014
Modern Art
London
Galleria Raffaella Cortese
Milan, Italy
David Zwirner
New York, NY, USA
2013
Kestnergesellschaft
Hanover, Germany
Institute of Contemporary Art
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Gemeente MuseumThe Hague, Netherlands
Galerie Gisela Capitain
Cologne, Germany
2012
Karla Black: Concentrations 55Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA
Modern Art
London
Gallery of Modern Art
Glasgow
Schinkel PavillonBerlin, Germany
2011
Karla Black, Scotland and Venice54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2010
Capitain Petzel
Berlin, Germany
Wittman Collection
Ingolstadt, Germany
Ten SculpturesKunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany
2009
Karla Black: Sculptures with paintings by Bet Low (1924-2007)
Inverleith House, Edinburgh
Kunstverein HamburgHamburg, Germany
Mary Mary
Glasgow
2008
Champagne Perrier-Jouët Prize (Winner 2007)
Zoo Art Fair, London
Catch This: New Works from the Arts Council Collection
Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
West London Projects
London
Galerie Gisela Capitain
Cologne, Germany
2007
IBID Projects
London
2006
Galerie Sandra Buergel
Berlin, Germany
Mary Mary
Glasgow
Outpost
Norwich
Have Him Be Her
Broadway 1602, New York, NY, USA
2004
Mary Mary
Glasgow
2002
Robert
Glasgow Project Room, Glasgow

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024
Capitain Petzel, with Alexandra Metcalf
Berlin, Germany
2023
Moving inSuper Super Markt, Berlin, Germany
The Stuff of Life/The Life of StuffSainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich
2022
My Reflection of You
The Perimeter, London
2019
In a Waiting Room
Curated by Milovan Farronato, Fiorucci Art Trust, London
The Aerodrome
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Josephine Meckseper
Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France
2018
Der flexible Plan: Das Rokoko in der Gegenwartskunst
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
MACBA Collection. Beneath the SurfaceMuseu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
DRAF x MOSTYN: She sees the shadowsMOSTYN, Llandudno, Wales
Summer Exhibition
Modern Art, London
On Paperan Arts Council touring exhibition, travelling to: Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Perth, Scotland (2018); Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Inverness, Scotland (2018); Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, Wales (2018); Victoria Art Gallery, Bath (2018-19); Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton (2019); Gallery Oldham, Oldham (2019)
2017
ISelf Collection: The Upset BucketWhitechapel Gallery, London
MACBA Collection. Beneath the Surface
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Mentales Gelb. SonnenhöchststandStädtische Galerie in Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
Sculptures Made of Paper: from Kurt Schwitters to Karla BlackKunsthalle Vogelmann Städtische Museen, Heilbronn, Germany
Viva Arte Viva, curated by Christine Macel57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Wholesome Environment
Lundgren Gallery, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Entangled: Threads & Making
Turner Contemporary, Margate
2016
A New Order, with Kishio SugaScottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
I still believe in miracles
Inverleith House, Edinburgh
Mystics and RationalistsModern Art Oxford, Oxford [part of KALEIDOSCOPE]
Theories of Modern Art
Modern Art, London
Cher(e)s Ami(e)s - Homage to Donors of Contemporary Collections: PART 1 / Gifts and Donations
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947 – 2016
Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2015
My Blueberry Night
Casarotto di Albegno, Bergamo (organised by Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo)
2014
ONE2 Collection
Palácio das Artes, Porto, Portugal
Living in the Material World: Materiality in Contemporary ArtMuseum Haus Esters, Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany, travelling to: Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria
Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in ScotlandScottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Manifesta 10: European Biennial of Contemporary ArtThe State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2013
Neo Povera
L&M Arts, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Out of the House, Cranford CollectionSala de Arte, Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain
2012
The Space BetweenTate Britain, London
En todo y en todas partes / Everywhere and on everything
Kurimanzutto, Mexico City, Mexico
2011
The Sculpture Show
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Arte EssenzialeFrankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
Turner PrizeBALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle
Before The LawMuseum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
You, Me, Something ElseGlasgow Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow
Frauenzimmer
Museum Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
Essential Art
Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Structure and MaterialLongside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
British Art Show 7London, Glasgow, Plymouth
2011
Nouvelles Collections IVCentrePasquArt Kunsthaus Centre d'Art, Biel, Switzerland
2010
Neue Alchemie. Kunst der Gegenwart nach Beuys
Landesmuseum Münster, Münster, Germany
British Art Show 7Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham
Neugierig?
Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
Group show
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Profusion
Calke Abbey, Ticknall, Derbyshire
2009
Material Intelligence Reduction & Suspense
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, touring to Huddersfield Art Gallery, Huddersfield
Magazin 4Bregenz, Austria
Black Hole, curated by Dr. Friederike Nymphius
CCA Andratx, Majorca, Spain
Nothing to say and I am saying it
Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
Don’t Expect Anything
Galleria Francesca Minini, Milan, Italy
Contemporary Scottish Art: New Acquisitions & Loans
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
2008
Brussels Biennial for contemporary art
Brussels, Belgium
The Garden of the Forking Paths, curated by Heike Munder
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Modern Art
London
Wollust
Columbus Art Foundation in Halle 14, Leipzig, Germany
Art Now: Strange SolutionTate Britain, London
2007
Ultramoderne
Hall Paul Wurth, Luxembourg, La Passerelle, Brest, France
What Remains
Lambretto Art Project, Milan, Italy
Poor ThingKunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Open Space presentation (Mary Mary)
Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Special Presentation
Broadway 1602, New York, NY, USA
Untitled - Works on Paper
Art : Concept, Paris, France
Planting the tele, curated by Hayley Tompkins
Mary Mary, Glasgow
2006
Karla Black, Sally Osborn, Sue Tompkins
Flaca, London
Karla Black, Dean Hughes, Duncan Marquiss, Jonathan Owen, Hanneline Visnes
Doggerfisher, Edinburgh
2005
Pilot 2
London
Like It Matters
CCA, Glasgow
Exile: New York is a Good Hotel
Broadway 1602, New York, NY, USA
Not Yet NightStudio Voltaire, London
Karla Black, Babak Ghazi
S1 Artspace, Sheffield
2004
Spacemakers
Lothringer Dreizhen, Munich, Germany
MFA Degree show
Tramway, Glasgow
Rheinschau Art Projects, Cologne, with Transmission
Cologne, Germany
Synth
Kunstraum B/2, Leipzig, Germany
Cheyney Thompson, Karla Black
Transmission Gallery, Glasgow
2003
Pallas
The Changing Room Gallery, Stirling
East International
Norwich Gallery, Norwich School of Art & Design, Norwich
An American Conversation, with Alex Frost
Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee
2002
The Châteaux
Switchspace, Glasgow
Half the World Away
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, New York, NY, USA
2001
Man Dancing
Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow
October: Contemporary Art in St. Vincent Street
Glasgow
Hi-Civics
Market Gallery, Glasgow
2000
Louder than Love
De Zeyp, Brussels, Belgium
Someone, Somewhere….
Glasgow Project Room, Glasgow

Selected Collections

Aberdeen Art Gallery
Aberdeen
Arts Council Collection
London
Centre Pompidou
Paris, France
Dallas Museum of Art
Dallas, TX, USA
David Roberts Art Foundation
London
Des Moines Art Centre
Des Moines, IA, USA
EVN Collection
Maria Enzersdorf, Austria
Gemeente Museum Den Haag
The Hague, Netherlands
Hammer Museum
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Lafayette Anticipations
Paris, France
Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Zürich, Switzerland
The New Art Gallery Walsall
Walsall
RISD Museum
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA
Saatchi Gallery
London
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Edinburgh
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York, NY, USA
Southbank Centre
London
Tate
London
Unilever Collection
London