PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
Klara Kristalova, born in Prague in 1967 and now based in a rural town north of Stockholm, draws on the imagery of northern European stories — such as those of Hans Christian Andersen, Selma Lagerlöf, and Gösta Berling — to construct dreamlike narratives in which adolescent girls and boys find themselves alone, physically altered, or out of place in nature.
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Ceramics first emerged in Japan in the Jomon period - the prehistoric era - making it one of the first art forms in the country, and one of the oldest ceramic traditions in the world.
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In this video from her solo exhibition “Underworld,” at Galerie Perrotin in Manhattan in the spring of 2014, Klara Kristalova discusses the making of this magical circus family and where she gets visual inspiration for the individual characters.
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Despite the continued outcry from the media and efforts by groups dedicated to eradicate gender inequality in the art world, the representation of women artists in major institutions and collections remains disproportionate: according to the Guerrilla Girls, statistics show that as far as museum solo shows and collections are concerned, the state of affairs is not much improved from the 1980s when they began their campaign. For the most part, the art market is to blame for this condition, and the billionaire art collectors whose tastes (and collections) drive the agendas of our major art museums. Some museums, however, are actively working against this status quo. In 2011 the Norton Museum of Art announced the formation of a six-year initiative to promote the work of women artists.
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Lehmann Maupin Gallery presents Sounds of Dogs and Youth, Klara Kristalova’s first solo exhibition in New York, on view 27 October, 2011
Read MoreLehmann Maupin Gallery presents Sounds of Dogs and Youth, Klara Kristalova’s first solo exhibition in New York, on view 27 October, 2011
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A do-it-yourself ceramicist, Klara Kristalova was born in Czechoslovakia, but raised in Sweden by parents who were abstract artists that had escaped
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Lehmann Maupin announced the opening of two summer group shows at 540 West 26th Street and 201 Chrystie Street, New York, from 27 June through 16 August
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Highlighting the revived medium of ceramics, SFMOMA presents New Work: Tiago Carneiro da Cunha and Klara Kristalova (July 8 through October 30, 2011)
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The French state bought eight works of contemporary art worth 200,000 euros at an annual fair that wrapped up Sunday, spending half
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Born in 1967 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Klara Kristalova lives and works in Norrtälje, Sweden. Kristalova creates sculptures, drawings and paintings, often using techniques and materials historically associated with the applied arts / crafts, such as watercolour and ceramics. Her figurative works are deliberately set against the bravado of Modernist forms and media. Her imagery shares affinities with old folk tale, exploring memory, trauma and desire. Kristalova’s feminine and pubescent characters often appear to be caught in a state of inner metamorphosis made outwardly apparent through grotesque appendages or zoological mutations. Suggestively misshapen and brut, her works seem to be animated by the gusto of some enchanted blasphemy that has congealed into fantastic and unsettling figures of earthenware and porcelain. Kristalova’s subjects possess an archetypal character despite the fact that they ultimately refer to idiosyncratic allegories. Detached from any narrative context, her poetic figures are invested with a clarity of form and vision, dangerously unhinged by the underlying hint of an irreversible transformation or a secret desire laid bare.
Klara Kristalova has recently presented solo exhibitions at Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm (2010), Museum Site Santa Fe (2009), Alison Jacques Gallery, London
(2009) and Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris (2008). Her work has also been shown as part of "Larger than life – Stranger than fiction", 11eme Fellbach Small Sculpture Triennial (2010), "Le Sang d'un poète", Biennale Estuaire Nantes / Saint-Nazair (2009), "Effigies" at Stuart Shave Modern art, London (2007) and "Makers & Modelers: Works in Ceramic" at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York (2007).
Klara Kristalova is represented by Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm, Alison Jacques Gallery, London, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York.
For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art
