Klara Kristalova

Two Dark Holes and Other Stories From May 12th through Jul 21st, 2007Galerie Emmanuel Perroting in Wynwood Art District is opening the exhibition Two Dark Holes and Other Stories by Klara Kristalova on May 12th, 2007 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Kristalova is a storyteller who uses the plasticity of sculpture to build small micro worlds, where something peculiar has just happened or is about to happen. She is part of the generation that acquired a higher artistic education in the late 80’s and early 90’s, during a period when modernism was seriously challenged. Her works, however, have never shown any tendency towards a programmatically motivated spirit of revolt. Kristalova steers clear of the rhetorical aspects of art, and instead deals with the small narratives, dreams, and nightmares of which everyday life is full. She is drawn to an invisible part of everyday existence, to a realm where our expectations take shape, where neuroses bloom, and memories mutate. This often results in her work acquiring a bizarre, slightly unsettling quality. Klara Kristalova’s entire oeuvre is imbued with her early interest in symbolism and surrealism. “My history and my childhood experiences are important,” she explains. In 1968, her family came to Sweden from Czechoslovakia. A few days after their arrival, the country was invaded by Russian troops. Klara Kristalova was one year old at the time. Five years later, her mother, the painter Helena Kristalova, died. Growing up with her father, Eugen Krajcik – a Czech artist with an anything-but-dogmatic attitude towards the conventions of modern art – gave birth to both a love for and a resistance to the craft of sculpting. “I don’t call myself a sculptor,” she explains, “I am a sculpting draughtsman and painter. A mixture of all three.” For more information, please contact: 305.573.2130