Karla Black

The migros museum für gegenwartskunst is presenting the work of Scottish artist Karla Black (born 1972 in Alexandria, lives and works in Glasgow) in her first solo exhibition in Switzerland. Plaster, chalk dust and Vaseline, or substances such as face powder, lipstick and nail varnish make up Black’s raw materials. The ephemeral works – whether transparent cellophane arranged sculpturally to hang from the ceiling, or fragile works of gossamer-fine powder sprinkled onto the floor – present references to the Minimal Art and Conceptual Art of the 1960s and 1970s. Black simultaneously extends the classical notion of sculpture through a process-oriented, performative handling of cultural connotations and untypical materials. Not only does she create an oppositional model to the brute effect of Minimal Art, but through the use of unstable and simple substances she ties into the history of antiform, begun for instance by Robert Morris in his use of felt, or Eva Hesse in her deployment of latex.

Curated by Heike Munder