Frame 61May 10, 2021

Karolina Albricht

Frame 61May 10, 2021

“the use of these materials echoes my thoughts on how the body and the painting correlate. Body being the agent of painting but also the nexus of seeing, the kind of seeing that calls for the entirety of your senses to participate.”

Could you tell us a bit about yourselves and your background? Where did you study?

I was born and grew up in Krakow, Poland. Drawing was something I was doing from an early age, ever since I remember. I would just stay in my room and draw for hours. I started painting around 14-15 when preparing for the exams for the High School of Art. I then went on to do an MA in painting at The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, but in retrospect I don’t think I took full advantage of my time there. In 2008 after my graduation I moved to London and out of necessity started working full-time in various, random jobs.

I kept a sketchbook and occasionally painted, when time allowed it, but it took me years to create financial conditions that would sustain my painting practice with enough regularity. I then slowly started getting my focus back, doing some painting at home, after work or during weekends. Getting a studio at ASC in 2016 was a kind of a breakthrough for me. Around that time, I also started working part-time so I’d have 2-3 days in the studio. I was aware of Turps for a long while before I joined the Studio Programme in 2018. Despite having already had an arts education, I consider the two years spent there as the most formative for me as a painter.

I'm interested in the relationship between painting and music in your work. Do you ever listen to music while you paint, or draw inspiration from specific songs? How does the relationship between music and art manifest itself in your work?

Music has always been a big part of my life and inevitably it has had an influence on my work. I remember listening to music and dancing as early as making my first drawings. The three domains of music, dancing and painting have forged a close connection since childhood. I’m not a musician and I don’t have any theoretical knowledge of music, but I think of music and of painting as an experience felt rather than known.

So, yes, I’ve always listened to music while painting. I make regular studio playlists, which in a way are now part of my practice; the sound and the mark become an almost simultaneous act - a constant exchange. There are certain structures contained within painting and music that correlate and talk to each other. I find that these patterns have to be disrupted, in order to find new ways of constructing a visual experience or a sound experience. Syncopation, in musical terms (based on my limited knowledge of music), is a form of dislocation, disruption, like a grain of sand stuck in the cogs. It occurs when you’re stressing the weak beat, when your foot is in the air when tapping to the music. That’s the moment- that glimpse I’m interested in.

There’s a direct link between syncopation and dancing- as syncopation increases, so does the body’s urge to move. All these activities are linked together through the body- an engine. We can unpick it and see how signals are transferred from the brain to the muscle receptors and how that then is manifested in a hand moving upwards or hips turning 90 degrees.

Your paintings are often quite textural, using a variety of materials including more unusual items such a hair. How do different materials influence your work and how do you decide which materials to use for a specific painting?

I find myself constantly reviewing the materials I’m using. You set up these self-imposed rules, which materials are part of, to then re-examine and break them. The notion of physicality has certainly become more prominent in my work over the last 5 years, manifesting itself not just pictorially but also through the matter; different mediums and substances I mix with paint, sticking fragments of painting rags, studio detritus etc. Once they find their place in the studio, the choice of materials is somewhat intuitive, not premeditated. It might be just a way of interacting with the material when preparing the surface or a way of disrupting what’s already there in the painting- there is no formula. Overall, it is the excitement and curiosity that drive the process, so it’s about getting hold of whatever can maintain that curiosity and keep the painting alive. I think that the use of these materials echoes my thoughts on how the body and the painting correlate. Body being the agent of painting but also the nexus of seeing, the kind of seeing that calls for the entirety of your senses to participate.

I find the idea of scale in your work interesting. Some of your paintings are large while others are quite small. Is there a balance you try to achieve between them? I'm thinking specifically about how they work together next to each other, say in a gallery space.

I’m interested in the way that painting operates in a micro/macro way and scale differentiation can heighten this experience, especially when a 220cm painting is placed directly next to a 30cm one- that only accentuates the difference and the experience further. The small paintings demand a different treatment from the large ones because of how they relate to the body- they have different entry points. It’s the human scale that counts, not the size of the painting, to paraphrase Barnett Newman. The space that is presented in the small work is compressed, as in it is a compression of the human scale, so these paintings need to pack a punch, almost become accretions of matter and time where space is revealed slowly and deliberately. The space in the large paintings is an approximation of the physical space a body occupies. For that reason, it is immediately recognized by the viewer, as a space they could physically enter, as if walking through an open door.

I haven’t thought of this scale contraction/expansion as a way of establishing a state of equilibrium, rather the opposite; I see it as a way of dislocating yourself, keeping yourself alert, open and flexible.

How do you go about naming your work?

I make notes of words or combinations of words which I think have some kind of potential. They might be fragments of lyrics of a song or a book, the source almost doesn’t matter. I compile these lists and go through them in the studio. I’m searching for the same characteristics in words as in painting and in music- a kind of a gap, rift dislocation. Words present another opportunity to push it further. For a title to work, it needs to assist the painting in whatever it’s doing, move along with it, the words need to become collaborators of the painting. Hopefully the relationship of words in a title (unless it’s single word) is synchronized with the relationships present in the painting. I think of titles as openings, they should always stay in communication with the painting. Jean Helion nailed it when he said that ‘There is power in a word that you feel before even knowing what it means’. This felt approach to words resonates with me deeply.

What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?

Sadly, like most of us, I haven’t seen much art in real life recently as the galleries are only awakening from the covid-hibernation, so I’ve mainly been looking at reproductions, a lot of Elizabeth Murray, Jerzy Nowosielski and Maria Jarema. But pre-lockdown (we’re talking late 2020) I went to see a number of excellent shows and I remember being particularly excited by Nick Goss’ recent paintings at Josh Lilley and Rachel Jones at Thaddaeus Ropac.

Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?

I have a few shows and projects lined up for the rest of this year. I’ll be in a group show opening on 1st July at Terrace Gallery in London, curated by Karl Bielik. Also happening in London that month is the Turps Leavers Show at Thames Side Gallery.

I’ve been working with Small Works Art Gallery on their new zine project where 12 artists write anonymously about each other’s work- it’s such a brilliant idea! The zines are in the process of being printed and will be available to purchase via Small Works Art Gallery website and Instagram account. Meanwhile, I’ve been developing a curatorial project called TIC TAC TOE with a friend of mine but due to the backlog in galleries’ programmes it might have to be pushed back to 2022 and once we secure a space for the show, we will be able to share all the details...There’s another group show planned for August and a couple of more projects planned for later this year, details to be revealed in due course, so stay tuned!

Artist’s website

All images are courtesy of the artist
Date of publication: 20/05/21

Frame 61