Karla Black

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

In 2011, Black was nominated for the Turner Prize and also represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale. 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.

Early life and education Black was born 1972 in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, and studied Sculpture at The Glasgow School of Art from 1995 to 1999. 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.

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."

Blacks work is in the collections of the Arts Council Collection London, the Dallas Museum of Art, the David Roberts Art Foundation, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the Southbank Centre, and the Tate.

Publications

. 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.