Curated by Alison Ferris

Surprisingly, given her many European fans, Karla Black has not yet had a major museum exhibition in the United States—until now. This show will feature fifteen of Black’s famously ethereal sculptures from the past decade—composed from such materials as makeup, cellophane, powder, petroleum jelly, and sugar paper—alongside two new works created specifically to accommodate the architecture of the Des Moines Art Center’s I. M. Pei building. In addition, paintings and sculptures selected by the artist from the museum’s collection (including works by Louise Bourgeois, Helen Franken-thaler, and Richard Tuttle) will establish a historical dialogue between Black’s work and other material-based approaches. The show’s catalogue will contain essays by curator Alison Ferris, art historians Jenni Sorkin and Elyse Speaks, and Elizabeth A. T. Smith of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.

— Travis Jeppesen