Karen Knorr: Three Exhibitions Showcasing Early Works

Karen Knorr Studio is starting the new year with a flurry of exhibitions, three exhibitions opening in the next few weeks showcase works from Knorr’s early career including Belgravia (1979–81), Gentlemen (1981–83), Country Life (1983–85) and Capital (1990–91). Further details can be found below:

Belgravia at Centre For British Photography, London, UK
26 January–30 May 2023
Highlights from the centre’s opening programme include the group exhibition The English at Home: Twentieth Century Photographs from the Hyman Collection featuring Karen Knorr’s Belgravia in full and a group exhibition curated by Fast Forward: Women in Photography presenting self-portraits by women that explore a range of contemporary issues.

Gentlemen & Country Life at National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA
29 January–11 June 2023
This Is Britain brings together the work of a generation of photographers who were commenting on the deep unrest of these pivotal decades.

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Karen Knorr Exhibitions Open & Opening January 2023

Karen Knorr Studio is starting the new year with a flurry of exhibitions, both internationally and in London. Exhibited works spanning Karen Knorr’s career are on view, including Belgravia, Capital, Academies and India Song. Further details are outlined below:

Kochi: India Song at Trinity, Kochi Fort for Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 23 December 2022–10 April 2023
A solo presentation of India Song

New York: In Conversation: Historic & Recent Work By Women at Sundaram Tagore Gallery Chelsea, 10–28 January 2023
Group exhibition of paintings, sculpture and installations by pioneering women whose creative contributions have shaped the gallery in meaningful ways.

Singapore: ART SG with Sundaram Tagore, 12–15 January 2023
Sundaram Tagore presents work by gallery artists, including a number of works from Karen Knorr’s India Song. BOOTH 1A02 at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. Read More

Museum of Art & Photography (MAP)
Opens in Bengaluru, India
Karen Knorr Founding Circle Member

“In 2008 I travelled to India for the first time with my dear friend Juliette Wilson. What a life changing  journey it became, in a small white Maruti we drove across 2000 miles in Northern India. 13 years ago in 2009 I was introduced to Abhishek Poddar by my colleague and friend Professor Anna Fox. During that time Abhishek was the director of Tasveer one of India’s first galleries dedicated to photography. It was a momentous meeting leading to a friendship which grew over the years and supported a photographic series which continues to this day India Song.

After the hiatus caused by Covid, I am delighted to be once more travelling and making work in India. Alongside my Indian friends I will be celebrating the opening of the Museum of Art & Photography in Bangalore as a member of the Museum’s Founding Circle. I am excited and honoured to be present at the  artists’ studio visits, events, meetings, and celebrations in Bangalore during December 9, 10 and 11th.” Read More

WWF Tomorrow’s Tigers
Fundraising Auction & Exhibition
24–29 November
Sotheby’s, London

In this lunar year of the Tiger, Sotheby’s has partnered with WWF for a fundraising initiative titled Tomorrow’s Tigers 2022 to support efforts to boost wild tiger numbers and to alleviate the threat posed to the rapidly depleting wild tiger populations. To support this initiative, a group of artist including Karen Knorr have donated their work which will be exhibited at Sotheby’s. Karen will be presenting her recent photograph The Protector, Junha Mahal, Dungarpur, 2022 from the India Song (2008-2022) series. The proceeds from the auction will go directly to support conservation programmes implemented by WWF across the globe.

The selling exhibition also presents a collaboration between Artwise Curators and the WWF featuring specially commissioned, limited-edition rugs designed by 12 celebrated artists from around the world produced by the specialists Christopher Farr.

The works will be available for purchase at www.artforyourworld.com.
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Paris Photo 2022
10–13 November
Grand Palais Éphémère 

Karen Knorr will be exhibiting recent works from India Song at Paris Photo 2022 with Augusta Edwards Fine Art at booth D20. Other photographers exhibiting with the gallery include Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, Martine Franck, Stuart Franklin, Josef Koudelka, Chris Killip and Graham Smith.

India Song celebrates the rich visual culture, the foundation myths and stories of northern India, focusing on Rajasthan and using sacred and secular sites to consider caste, femininity and its relationship to the animal world. Interiors are painstakingly photographed, live animals are inserted into the architectural sites, blurring boundaries between reality and illusion and reinventing the Panchatantra for the 21st century.

Paris Photo brings together up to 200 exhibitors from across the world, offering collectors and enthusiasts the most diverse and qualitative presentation of photography-driven projects today. Leading galleries showcase historical and contemporary artworks from modern masters to young talents. The 25th edition of Paris Photo will take place in Paris, Thursday, November 10 through Sunday, November 13 with a preview day on Wednesday, November 9 (by invitation only) at the newly constructed Grand Palais Ephémère on the Champ de Mars facing the Eifffel Tower.

India Song
Danziger Gallery
Los Angeles
10 September–5 November 2022

Danziger Gallery will be presenting the photographs of Karen Knorr – a 21st century bestiary showcasing a selection of her constructed animal pictures taken in India between 2008 and 2022. This will be their fourth presentation of Knorr’s work over the last 10 years and the first solo exhibition of her work in Los Angeles. The show will include recent additions to the India Song series, including The Protector, Junha Mahal, Dungarpur, 2022to be exhibited for the first time.

While Knorr’s images take some of their inspiration from the Indian tradition of personifying animals in literature and art, there is another almost subconscious strain to her work. Going back to the time of cave painting we see that these early visual artists not only recorded their lives and surroundings, but used art to express themselves. The depiction of animals in symbolic and powerful ways and the urge to create these images with the best tools at hand is a line stretching from these unnamed cave painters to Karen Knorr. Read More

Questions (After Brecht)
Photo Gloucester
The Eastgate Centre
26–29 August 2022

At the end of August, Hundred Heroines & Friends will be hosting a long weekend of photography exhibitions, artist talks and screenings, along with an exciting programme of empowerment and creativity.  International stars will be zooming into Gloucester (literally and virtually), to join us for debates, discussions and a lively weekend of all things women in photography.

In 2017 a number of artists were given a carte blanche commission to photograph the Art-Deco department store, La Samaritaine in Paris, during its refurbishment.  Karen chose a documentary approach ‘infused with playful fantasy and surrealism’ through which she created ‘solarised “work theatres”’.  Each image is accompanied by a stanza from Questions from a Worker Who Reads (Bertolt Brecht). The entire series will be screened daily during the festival, accompanied by a podcast Karen made with Hundred Heroines. Questions (After Brecht) was published by GOST in 2020 and includes an interview with David Campany, copies will be available for purchase at the festival.

Festival Central and the main exhibitions will be on the top floor of the The Eastgate Centre with further events in other venues around the city, including Jolt Studios.

Intersect Aspen Art & Design Fair
Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Booth A8
31 July–4 August 2022

Sundaram Tagore Gallery will be exhibiting a number of works from gallery artists at Intersect Aspen Art & Design Fair between 31 July–4 August at Aspen Ice Garden.

Works from Karen Knorr’s series Monogatari will be exhibited. The series, started in 2012, imagines animal life and Japanese cultural heritage referencing buddhist Jataka tales and Japanese stories.

Photographed in temples, shrines, ryokans and gardens in Kyoto, Nara, Ise and Tokyo, animals and women in traditional kimonos evoke screen art of the Edo period. Knorr, inspired by Japanese art (ukijo-e, screen painting) has produced a series of photographs of Japanese animals which appear in temples and shrines referencing the folktales of the supernatural such as Kaidan and Shinto kami (spirits). Read More

Masterpiece
Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Stand 412, South Grounds, The Royal Chelsea Hospital, London
30 June–7 July

Karen Knorr will exhibiting works from India Song as part of two upcoming presentations in London with Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Masterpiece London Art Fair (30 June–7 July). Recently Karen Knorr presented the solo exhibition Transmigrations at Sundaram Tagore’s Chelsea gallery in New York.

Karen Knorr’s work India Song celebrates the rich visual culture, the foundation myths and stories of northern India, focusing on Rajasthan and using sacred and secular sites to consider caste, femininity and its relationship to the animal world. Interiors are painstakingly photographed with a large format Sinar P3 analogue camera and scanned to very high resolution. Live animals are inserted into the architectural sites, fusing high resolution digital with analogue photography. Animals photographed in sanctuaries, zoos and cities inhabit palaces, mausoleums , temples and holy sites, interrogating Indian cultural heritage and rigid hierarchies. Cranes, zebus, langurs, tigers and elephants mutate from princely pets to avatars of past feminine historic characters, blurring boundaries between reality and illusion and reinventing the Panchatantra for the 21st century.