Description

Kika Karadi. "Untitled (OPM No. 21)". 30" x 22.5". Signed edition of 25. $400. Eschewing the self-conscious act of painting for a more intuitive, inventive approach, Kika Karadi’s process is visceral rather than calculated, likened by the artist to “drawing with a stick in the dirt.” The immediacy of her gesture is apparent (mark-making techniques involve scraping paint and scrawling lines), as are the tools used to create the work, which are built up on a piece of glass and transferred to the linen surface of the final painting. The residue of masking tape, cardboard and oil-based black ink leaves a monochrome stamp on the fabric, a painting once-removed yet recognizable, an impression of a potential reality. This new body of work, serially numbered and titled with the acronym “OPM”, refers to the abandoned Oak Park Mall in Minnesota where the artist keeps a studio, underlining her ephemeral process and the spectral presence of her work. Karadi’s stark, almost low-fi abstractions evoke the raw visual tension of automatic drawing and a relatable search to distill the essence from something felt.