Karl Karner

Karl Karner (b.1973 in Feldbach, Austria) lives and works in Feldbach, Austria. Karner studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna under Professor Heimo Zobernig.

Karner positions his work between the disciplines of visual arts, performance and dance theatre. Within his practice, Karner continuously discusses bodily perception and the concept of corporeality itself. These are not only related to the human body, but can yet be understood as a wide discussion of object, materiality and space. In the artist´s installations and art environments, viewers frequently become players. Such participative impulses accentuate the irony inherent in these artworks. 

The repetition of recurring motifs references the serial production of industrial objects. In Karner‘s work, these motifs are hand-made pieces of cast iron that become part of the artistic process. His preferred motifs are beaked creatures and dogs or hares, often clad with bronze or gold. It would almost seem that these inanimate fantastic creatures are brought to life by the protagonists. With their interactive potential, the environments created by Karner generate various forms of display that are composed similar to arrangements of theatre props and are complemented by a series of performative gestures. 

Karl Karner‘s multisensorial, fictional fairytale worlds tell a story of incessantly repeated settings of everyday life, albeit with their function deconstructed, which clearly point out the absurdity of certain processes and elements. One of Karner’s more recent exploration in his practice includes the production of tights on which he prints his drawings. Borne out of Karner’s explorations of how to animate his drawings in the reality, utilising the spontaneity and expressive nature of drawing, by wearing the tights the drawings automatically enter into a state of theatre, with the body becoming the canvas to the medium.

Recent solo exhibitions include: "Skulpturen", Kunsthaus Weiz, AT, 'Brutbladd_the horse eats with me', Galerie  Kandlhofer, 2021, 'rhabarber schwarz', Artdepot Gallery, Innsbruck, 2018; 'getting down on knees and nerves' collaboration with Nana Mandl, Kunsthalle Graz, 2018; 'Spiel gerade Höllentor', Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer, 2016; 'Nude Program', ABContemporary, 2016; 'Lungball', Galerie Lendl, 2016 and 'FakeFukoo', ABContemporary, 2015.