News

Once Only Window Installation at White Conduit Projects in London

Once Only Only Once
White Conduit Projects, London N1 9EL
28 December 2020–14 February 2021

With the UK entering a third lockdown and galleries closed to the public, photographs from Karen Knorr’s series Monogatari will be exhibited in a window installation at White Conduit Projects in London.

Visible from the street, Karen Knorr’s works from Once Only Only Once which are undertaken in Daitoki-ji’s Obai-in temple in Japan. The translated title, “Ichi-go ichi-e” describes a cultural concept of treasuring meetings with people. The phrase means that each encounter happens only once in a lifetime and we should be grateful for every second of our lives with peace of mind.

Full details of the unique tray-framed edition available from White Conduit Projects is available for download from the Kyoto Projects section of the gallery’s website.

New monograph ‘Questions (After Brecht) now available to order online

Questions (After Brecht) Published by GOST Books, Now Available

Karen Knorr’s eighth monograph Question (After Brecht) published by GOST Books is now available to order online via GOST and Karen Knorr’s website. Karen Knorr photographed the building site of the disused Parisian Art-Deco Department store, La Samaritaine, in the summers of 2017 and 2018. In this new book, the resulting photographs, transformed with solarisation and infused with playful fantasy and surrealism are accompanied by lines from Brecht’s poem: Questions from a Worker Who Reads (1935). The book includes an email interview with David Campany.

“These photographs record and document a labour in progress, yet the construction workers have exited and the building is built as if by magic. The actual physical labour is here embedded in a process of reification which creates an effect so well described by Guy Debord in Society of the Spectacle, 1967: ‘The spectacle is not a collection of images; rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.’ The images here transformed by solarised colour evoke the retail shops and designer goods valued over and beyond material labour. Brecht’s poem reminds us how history enhances the reputations of kings and leaders to the detriment of ordinary people and workers.”
Karen Knorr, 2020

Karen Knorr: Babylon at F I L E T, London

 Karen Knorr: Babylon
PUBLIKA FENESTRO, F I L E T
103 Murray Grove, London N1 7QP
14:30–18:00, 23–28 November 2020

Babylon from Karen Knorr’s Questions (After Brecht) is now on-view as part of F I L E T’s Publika Finestro series of installations viewable from the street at 103 Murray Grove, near Old Street in London. F I L E T is a space for experimental art production founded by Rut Blees Luxemburg and Uta Kögelburger. Based in London, in close proximity to the ‘digital roundabout’, F I L E T is a physical research organ that provides a platform for production, dissemination discourse of contemporary art.

Question (After Brecht) published by GOST Books is now available to order via GOSTand Karen Knorr’s website. Karen Knorr photographed the building site of the disused Parisian Art-Deco Department store, La Samaritaine, in the summers of 2017 and 2018. In this new book, the resulting photographs, transformed with solarisation and infused with playful fantasy and surrealism are accompanied by lines from Brecht’s poem: Questions from a Worker Who Reads (1935). The book includes an email interview with David Campany.

Inherent Beauty Opens at Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Singapore

Inherent Beauty: Photographers Who Change How We See the World
Sundaram Tagore Gallery, 9 October – 21 November

Head to Sundaram Tagore for an exhibition of work by six world-renowned photographers. They deeply engage with the environment and contemporary social issues. Each of them create compelling visual narratives that explore our shared humanity and convey the beauty in diversity and in the natural world.

Sebastião Salgado and Steve McCurry share a photojournalistic approach, recording human struggle and the impact of conflict and globalisation. Karen Knorr’s intricate images use ancient myths and allegories to frame issues of entrenched social constructs. Lalla Essaydi and Robert Polidori explore the human condition through intimate examinations of spaces, both real and symbolic. Edward Burtynsky photographs industrial landscapes around the world, showing the devastating impact of manufacturing and human consumption.

Photo London Digital

Photo London Digital, 7–18 October

Karen Knorr is exhibiting a number of works as part of Photo London Digital with Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Danziger Gallery, Augusta Edwards Fine Art and HI-NOON. Knorr’s up-coming monograph Questions (After Brecht) will be launched online by publisher GOST Books. Photo London Digital is the first international photography fair online and will take place on a platform built by the Fair’s digital partner, Artsy, and accessible both from the Photo London website and Artsy’s.

Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad, Founders of Photo London, comment: ‘Photo London Digital builds on the outstanding achievements of the first five editions of the Fair that have created an unparalleled annual international photography event in London – the much-heralded Photo London week. As ever, our exhibitors and the artists that they will showcase over the fourteen days of the Fair, lie at the heart of Photo London. No matter where they come from our exhibitors present a stunning roster of brilliantly innovative artists and works – from the early experiments with the medium to the masters of the form and beyond them to contemporary work that pushes at the boundaries of photography’

Artists for Pitzhanger: Limited Edition India Song Print Available

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery will next week launch an exciting sale of limited edition artworks by leading artists: Emily Allchurch, Anish Kapoor, Karen Knorr, Miyu Kurihara, John Riddy and Othello De’Souza-Hartley.

Pitzhanger had been open for just one year following its complete restoration, before closing temporarily in March 2020 in response to Covid-19, immediately losing all its admissions and commercial income. Artists for Pitzhanger will raise vital funds to help Pitzhanger’s recovery at this time of need, supporting its recent reopening and future learning and outreach programmes.

Works by the different artists, which will include limited edition photographic prints, ceramics and jewellery, will be launched on 30 September and sold through the month of October, with each artist having their own unique window of sales. Karen Knorr’s print will be available for purchase between 5–8 October and available in a limited edition of 25. The artworks will be sold via Pitzhanger’s Instagram account @Pitzhanger with information also regularly updated on its website pitzhanger.org.uk.

Auction and Print Sale For Chiswick House & Gardens Trust 

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Chiswick House & Gardens have seen a 60% reduction in income. To off-set the deficit, an auction is planned as the culmination of #welovechiswickhouse campaign which aims to raise £120,000 over 120 days by the end of the summer. Art works include donations from Chiswick residents Sir Peter Blake and Marthe Armitage and Karen Knorr.

Karen Knorr is delighted to be donating ‘Contemplation of the Essential Forms’ a signed work photographed in Chiswick House, as part of a series of 17 large scale Cibachrome photographs Karen completed in 1986 alluding to received ideas of beauty and taste in British culture. Titled Connoisseurs, the series was also shot at five locations: Osterley House, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as Chiswick House.

Fox Talbot Retrospective in Italy

The first major William Henry Fox Talbot retrospective in Italy ‘L’IMPRONTA DEL REALE’ opens this week at Gallerie Estensi Modena in collaboration with FMAV – Fondazione Modena Arti Visive. Curated by Silvia Urbini and Chiara Dall’Olio, the exhibition includes two key works by Karen Knorr from the series Academies (1994–2005). Other artists include the Italian photography pioneers Paolo Gioli and Mario Cresci.

12 September 2020–10 January 2021
Gallerie Estensi Modena, Italy

Masculinities at the Barbican Reopens and Summer Update

Karen Knorr continues helping to support charities such as Support in Mind (Scotland) and Artist Support Pledge initiative giving back to artists and to Artist Support Pledge itself to help it develop further projects supporting the art community.

These last weeks Karen has been working on more images from her India Song series completing a further two with two white tigers which she photographed in animal sanctuaries in India. As she puts it on her instagram account @karen1knorr  “I have been working on  of this ‘Hall of Mirrors’ in Amer Fort. Last January. It took two hours attempting to get the shot without the use of tripod no main feat with crowds pushing. I must have held my breath to steady the shot and later tried to imagine a tiger’s breath which is also a yoga position called prana  breathing where one has to be performed on all fours.”Masculinities Reopens to the Public at the Barbican in London

The Barbican recently reopened to the public, all visitors have to book tickets in advance and wear a mask at all times. For information about booking a ticket and the safety measures the Barbican has implemented because of corona virus please visit their website. 

Academies Print Available To Support Charity Support in Mind Scotland

Studies for Mind Charity Sale of Photography 

Studies in Photography have organised a sale of photographs to raise money for the charity Support in Mind Scotland who work to improve the wellbeing and quality of life of people affected by serious mental illness including family members, carers and supporters.

Priced at £50 each (+P&P), prints are available from a number of photographers including Susan Derges, David Eustace, Karen Knorr, Garry Fabian Miller, Tom Hunter, Sekai Machache, Wendy McMurdo, Callum Colvin, Margaret Mitchell and many many more! Produced as A4 giclée prints on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper in an unlimited edition, these prints are only available for one month with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity Support Mind Scotland. For more information  please visit the studiesinphotography website before 24 July.