Maren Karlson

When the real slowly falls apart, what kind of unreality do we construct out of its remnants and inconsistencies? Staub (Störung) examines the conditions that disturb or unsettle a “natural” order, through an exploration of the disruptive potential of the outside (the strange, the unfamiliar) and what happens when it becomes part of the inside (the known, the familiar) – and vice versa.

Working with four photographs of the decaying interior of Kombinat VEB Chemische Werke Buna in the 1970s and 80s - a factory in Schkopau, East Germany that produced rubber and plastic - Karlson became interested in ruining the idea of a coherent image. An understanding of time warps, as the identifiable signifiers of past, present and future become purposely confused in these new compositions. Obstructing reality – in these works and otherwise – blows dust into the gears of the machinery. Karlson’s distortions initiate an inquiry into what happens when our ability to distinguish the real from the unreal is undermined or the distinction between these two conditions become obscured.

Maren Karlson (b. 1988, Rostock, Germany) lives and works in Los Angeles, where she is currently completing an MFA in Painting At UCLA. Past solo and two-person exhibitions include: Staub at Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich (2024); Collapse at Soft Opening at CFA, Milan (2023) with Nevine Mahmoud; Lacker at in lieu, Los Angeles (2023) with Sophie Friedman-Pappas; Cypher at Soft Opening, London (2022) and Nodulara at Ashley, Berlin (2021). Selected group exhibitions include Support Structures at Gathering, London (2023); Body without Organs at Chapter NY, New York (2023); On Failure at Soft Opening, London (2023); Species at Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich (2023); Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize at Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto (2023); Durian on the Skin at François Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2022) and Drawing in the Continuous Present, curated by Rosario Guiraldes at The Drawing Center, New York (2022).