Karen Knorr: Transmigrations
Sundaram Tagore Gallery Chelsea
542 West 26th Street, New York
5 May–4 June 2022

Opening Reception with the Artist:
Thursday 5 May, 6–8pm

Sundaram Tagore Gallery are pleased to present a solo exhibition of photographs by Karen Knorr. The American/British artist is known for her sumptuous, conceptually driven images that employ opulent palaces, museums and temples of Western Europe and Asia to frame issues of power rooted in cultural heritage.

The London-based artist, whose work is in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and Tate, London, presents a curated selection of images from five of her most powerful series, including India Song, Fables, Monogatari, Metamorphoses and The Lanesborough. The exhibition marks the debut of two band-new photographs created earlier this year as well as images from her Monogatari series on view for the first time in the United Sates.

Over the course of her career, Knorr has used video and photography as a method of critical inquest. Her work has consistently examined the meaning of place, often drawing from folklore, myths and allegories to express contemporary ideas. More recently, her titles reference historic works of literature, such as Aesop’s Fables, the poems of Ovid and ancient epics from India, including the Rāmāyana, the Mahābhārata and the Panchatantra.

Knorr uses this layered storytelling approach to distance herself from more literal documentary photography. Lush, playful and spectacularly colorful, her images of exotic animals digitally fused into grand architectural settings are as aesthetically thrilling as they are thought-provoking.