Jonathan Viner

Kika Karadi

16 May - 28 Jun 2014

© Kika Karadi
Untitled (OPM no. 3), 2014
oil based ink on linen
KIKA KARADI
16 May - 28 June 2014

Jonathan Viner Gallery is pleased to present a new body of work by Kika Karadi. On view for her first solo exhibition in the UK are eight large abstract paintings in a monochrome pallet.

These one-shot 'action abstractions' are intricately composed black stenciled signage on a white linen background. In opposition to minimalist procedural painting, Karadi's practice includes an array of painterly techniques, using masking tape, cardboard and crude cut out shapes to create compositions while removing paint with razor blades to create negative space.

In this series Karadi reintroduces hints of representation- atmospheric cinematic scenes, figurative forms and symbols which welcome the impurities of cultural collision. References range from film and television to literature and discursive systems, advertising, politics, music, sports and news. Karadi's approach does not attempt to address a historical set of questions within painting's critical discourse but rather uses the absence of the painted hand gesture and a painted allusion to light to build an abstract representational space which disperses back into organic disorder. These simple stark abstractions remain aloof to the self conscious act of painting, the distanced results of an almost mechanical action.