Intimate Renderings with Karen Black

Ahead of her upcoming solo exhibition later this year, Karen Black invited us to an intimate conversation with studio liaison Tiffeny Fayne, discussing her practice, and sharing small works on paper—process paintings that usually remain unseen, but which offer insight into the creative development of the artist’s upcoming body of work.

Tiffeny Fayne (TF) / Your art practice draws on your own collected experiences and observations of the world and is often charged with psychological tension. Does the production of such work sometimes feel emotionally draining or do you experience a sense of release?

Karen Black Study 3, 2021 20.5 x 16.8 cm oil on paper

Photo: Simon Hewson

Karen Black (KB) / I think most painters understand that making their work can quite often be draining emotionally and physically. There are many questions that the painting will throw at you throughout the process and you need to stay fully engaged with the work to come to a resolution and to be making the best decisions for the work. The sense of release comes when the works leave my studio and I’m free to go on with whatever is coming up next.

TF / The abstracted scenes and figures that emerge from the layers of paint not only demonstrate the richness of your imagination, but also allow an audience to draw associations and make their own discoveries, which can contribute to the meaning of the work. Do you intentionally aim to stir this level of engagement and exchange between artist, artwork and audience?

KB / To keep myself interested, I’ll work on the edge of abstraction and figuration, wondering if the viewer will notice a certain figure or not. Sometimes, I’ll intentionally make marks that are almost notes to the viewer or signs to initiate a certain reading of the work. Mark making and

Karen Black Study 5, 2021 11 x 29.5 cm oil on paper

Photo: Simon Hewson

colours can also be used to inform the composition—to invite the viewer to move in a certain direction around the surface while viewing a work.

TF / Does the subconscious play any part in producing such imagery? For example, through a form of automatic production?

KB / I add lots of medium in strategic places, to thin the paint out and stain the surface. Also, as the dripping paint sits on the surface, it can spontaneously form interesting marks while it is pooling and drying or dripping.

TF / What is it that attracts you to this quite delicate paper?

KB / For many years I’ve worked on small pieces of palette paper and small Italian gesso panels in an automatic way, letting the paint make the work. I enjoy pushing and pulling the medium and diluting the oil paint to make interesting marks. I’ll paint single figures that could be worked into larger paintings and landscapes for backgrounds.

KB / I love the smoothness of the surface. The paint glides over it in a very sexy way. It also produces a beautiful staining affect when I rub the paint off. It is a great surface for drawing in oil paint, which I love to do.

TF / Is this how your early work on paper was initiated or did this method come about as a result of that work?

AUG/SEP 2022

TF / So, you dilute the paint to increase the element of chance and stimulate spontaneous marks?

KB / The early works on paper initially began by mixing colours on a paper palette. I then began to make

Karen Black Study 3, 2021 20.5 x 16.8 cm oil on paper

Photo: Simon Hewson

paintings from these and started painting on Italian gesso boards as well. I still use both for sketching figures and compositions in paint.

TF / Do you ever recall dream sequences in your work?

KB / Actually, I don’t think I dream at all! If I do, I don’t remember them. Very, very occasionally I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and remember a dream.

TF / That’s interesting. It makes me wonder if perhaps you’re dreaming while awake in a way. Maybe you’re tapping into a similar state when working in such an immediate and intuitive way.

KB / There is a kind of zone or space that I sometimes find myself in while painting. It feels like I’ve been somewhere else for hours at a time and it also feels like no time has

passed. An interesting space to be working in. Maybe that is me unknowingly accessing my unconscious.

TF / Can you share a little about what we can look forward to seeing in your upcoming exhibition at S+S in November?

KB / I’m working on some large paintings for the November exhibition, upscaling my brushes and trying to be economical with my mark making. I’ve been wanting to have larger negative spaces in the works for some time but never feel brave enough to do this. This is what I am hoping I can achieve in these new works.

EXHIBITION: KAREN BLACK, 17 NOV - 22 DEC, 2022+ EMAIL ART@SULLIVANSTRUMPF.COM TO REQUEST A PREVIEW