GAVLAK Los Angeles is pleased to present “Karen Carson: Middle Ground,” the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery running from January 9 through March 6, 2021. Centered around her current bas relief works and her early “zipper” series, both bodies of work deploy geometric configurations to explore the convergence of gender, nature and the material world. The exhibition’s title refers to the interplay between these two series; both operate as key historical markers that speak to Carson’s artistic importance for the past five decades, creating work with an expansive visual language that has engaged contemporary issues and political culture in myriad ways.
p>“Karen Carson: Middle Ground” is situated amongst an integral art historical conversation around minimalism. Carson’s rich legacy began in the early 1970s when artists such as Lynda Benglis, Dan Flavin and Donald Judd became prominent names in the minimalist movement, which sought to explore the dialogues between representation, abstraction, agency and aesthetic judgment. Additionally, Carson’s work engages with the art historical legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe, as both artists found visceral inspiration in the natural phenomenon of the American West, seeking to articulate the endless expanse of the unknown.</p>