NYAB Event - Kika Karadi Exhibition

Kika Karadi Exhibition

The Journal Gallery (106 North 1st St)

This event has ended.

A departure from Karadi’s earlier paintings inspired by 1930’s and 40’s film noir and horror cinema, the “OPM” works presented in the exhibition are large-scale, monotonal paintings derived from the practice of automatic drawing. Using an invented mark making technique, Karadi’s process of painting by removal incorporates masking tape and oil-based black ink first applied on glass, then transferred to linen. The immediacy inherent in the process is apparent in the paintings, in which the tools, such as imprints of tape or a corrugated cardboard surface, are allowed to remain evident. Randomized removed gestures lead to scribbles of seemingly arbitrary shapes, creating a visual tension that provokes the viewer to access the work via intuitive recognition based on their own personal memories and experiences.

The letters in the titles of Karadi’s new works, “OPM,” refer to the Oak Park Mall in Austin, Minnesota, where the artist keeps a studio.

Kika Karadi was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1975. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, including the 2005 Prague Biennial, the 51st Venice Biennale (2005), “Blind Sculpture” at Greene Naftali, NY (2010), and the 2010 and 2012 Brucennials in New York. Her solo exhibitions include exhibitions at Bowery Annex Space, New York, NY (2012), Galleria Rubin, Milan, Italy (2009), Moeller Snow Gallery, New York, NY (2008), 404 Arte Contemporanea, Naples, Italy (2006) and Bas Fisher Invitational, Miami, FL (2004), among others.