25 June–30 July, 2022
6 Minerva Street

Extended until:
Saturday, 17 September, 2022

MAREN KARLSON CYPHER
at SOFT OPENING

The experience of looking at Maren Karlson’s paintings is one of uncanny recognition: a simultaneous coming to and an evacuation of the senses. In Cypher, we encounter the artist as she repeatedly transforms either-or into and-also: man made devices and-also nature’s most intricate forms, the sublime and-also the abhorrent, the space and-also the void. Through this conscious multiplicity, Karlson renders static ideas of existence contingent and fluid, a compelling or worrisome proposition depending on who you’re talking to.

Regardless of the varied and otherworldly character of many of the forms she depicts, all of Karlson’s motifs attest to dynamism, ecstasy, and pathos. The living leads her to the invisible, to the vulnerable, sometimes the shadowy or the unseen. Karlson detaches forms from organism and grid alike, and in their newfound isolation, conjures a sense of spirituality as well as a relationship to liveliness. Her combination of freehand drawing and painterly precision result in pillowy compositions anchored by a strong sense of line.

In the works on view as part of Cypher, Karlson’s interests in body, landscape, and structure coalesce. Her paintings inhabit the inter­section of a shift in perception and an assessment of reality, cosmically penetrating a geometric process. Many of the works possess what Karlson has described as an “anti-petrifying effect,” a reminder that any interest in death is only another expression of interest in life. Indeed, one is struck by forms that recall a rib cage, spine, or perhaps a tomb, as much as by the sensation that Karlson is pulling us closer to something redolent of death in order to enliven in us a stronger, more certain sense of life.

— Isabel Parkes

Maren Karlson (b. 1988) lives and works in Berlin. The artist was recently included in the exhibition Drawing in the Continuous Present at The Drawing Center, New York (2022). Past solo and two-person exhibitions include: Nodulara at Ashley, Berlin (2021); Counsel at Springsteen, Baltimore (2021) with Kira Scerbin; Petal’s Path at in lieu, Los Angeles (2020); Rats dream about the places they want to explore at 427 gallery, Riga (2019); Hear the lizards listening at Mélange Gallery, Cologne (2019) with Claude Eigan and Happy Dark at Interstate Projects, New York (2017). Selected group exhibitions include: HU at Real Pain, Los Angeles (2020); Perhaps A Window? at stadium, Berlin (2020); Introducing at in lieu, Los Angeles (2020); Cloak of Mercy at Horse & Pony, Berlin (2019); Nightshades at Polansky Gallery, Brno (2019) and Fantasia at Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles (2019).

Press

Artforum

PDF

Exhibition pamphlet