Karla Black's abstract and immersive sculptures are created through her experimentation with unconventional materials, combining for example cotton wool, sugar paper, make-up, earth, toothpaste or gold with more conventional foundations such as paper, cellophane and plaster. Tactile, transparent materials are interspersed with natural and cosmetic substances, smudged and blurred by hand, or lightly sprinkled. Expanding the parameters of sculpture, Black creates ephemeral worlds, affective layered landscapes, at once monumental but also weightless.

Black represented Scotland at the 57th Venice Biennale Viva Arte Viva in 2011.

Karla Black was born in Alexandria, Scotland in 1972. She now lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland.

Collections

Karla Black’s work is part of public collections worldwide. These include the Arts Council Collection (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Collezione Maramotti (Reggio Emilia), Dallas Museum of Art, David Roberts Art Foundation (London), Des Moines Art Center, Gemeente Museum Den Haag (The Hague), Glasgow Museums, Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Lafayette Anticipations (Paris), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zürich), RISD Museum (Rhode Island), Saatchi Gallery (London), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh), Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (New York), Tate (London) and The Perimeter (London).

Education

Black studied Fine Art and Philosophy at the Glasgow School of Art and graduated with an MFA in 2004.

Exhibitions

Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Super Super Markt (Berlin), New Art Gallery Walsall, Modern Art (London), Fruitmarket Gallery (Edinburgh), Des Moines Art Centre, Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt am Main), Le Festival d’Automne (Paris), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (Deurle), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh), Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), Gemeentemuseum (The Hague), Dallas Museum of Art, Gallery of Modern Art (Glasgow), Deichtorhallen (Hamburg), 57th Venice Biennale, Lenbachhaus (Munich), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Manifest 10 (St. Petersburg), Museum Ludwig (Cologne), Carré d’Art-Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, Bundeskunsthalle (Bonn) and the Tate Britain (London).