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16 Branches High : Karolina Albricht

Past exhibition
11 March - 8 April 2022
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Overview
16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin.
16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin.
STUDIO WEST is proud to present 16 Branches High, a solo show by London-based Polish painter Karolina Albricht. Thematically the pieces on show are a continuation of Albricht's investigation of both formal and metaphysical concerns including colour, space, the body, movement, and gesture.

The exhibition title comes from the lyrics of Nick Cave and The Bad Seed’s Spinning Song. The phrase ‘16 Branches High’ has been pasted up in Albricht’s studio for months, watching over and influencing the many facets of the artists’ ever-developing practice. Music, syncopation, and rhythm underpin Albricht’s practice. Often working to playlists, the organic line and irregular shapes seen throughout the works in the show mirror the dissonance, and indeterminacy of many of Albricht’s ‘Studio Playlists’.

 

As part of Albricht’s process, studio detritus is recycled to create textured surfaces and additions; sometimes anthropomorphic, the artist uses shredded jute as ‘hair’; dried paint fragments and aptly named ‘other stuff’ (pumice, sand, grit, and calico amongst other things) to fashion work that escapes the expected boundary of two-dimensional painting.

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Download Press Release
Press release

STUDIO WEST is proud to present 16 Branches High, a solo show by London-based Polish painter and sculptor Karolina Albricht. The exhibition presents abstracted painted works of differing scale, juxtaposed to an exploratory body of sculpture. Thematically the pieces on show are a continuation of Albricht’s investigation of both formal and metaphysical concerns including colour, space, the body, movement, and gesture.


The exhibition title comes from the lyrics of Nick Cave and The Bad Seed’s Spinning Song.  The phrase ‘16 Branches High’ has been pasted in Albricht’s studio for months, watching over and influencing the many facets of the artists’ ever-developing practice. Music, syncopation, and rhythm underpin Albricht’s practice. Often working to playlists, the organic line and graphic shapes seen throughout the works in the show mirror the dissonance, and abstraction of many of Caves’ songs.

 

Albricht intends to create works that are born of a sense of intuition. Recycling studio detritus to create textured surfaces and additions, many of Albricht’s works straddle both painting and sculpture. Sometimes anthropomorphic, the artist uses shredded jute as ‘hair’; dried paint fragments and aptly named ‘Other Stuff’ (pumice, sand, grit, and calico among other things) to fashion work that escapes the expected boundary of two dimensional painting.

 

Albricht investigates the relationship between the body and the canvas, for her, paintings allow her to translate the figure. The movement of her body can be observed in the works, both small and large. Smooth colours, jagged lines and nearly recognizable forms overlap each other and create emotional and gestural visual spaces. Her largest canvases are like realms to be entered, dwarfing the body of the viewer as they stand and observe. The smaller works, meanwhile, contort shapes, objects, and reality, creating ‘paintings’ that burst out from their own seams, breaching conventional constraints of the canvas.

“Time seems to become increasingly compressed as the scale of my work decreases. The smaller the work, often the longer it takes to create. I become so absorbed in them, it’s hard to explain.”

 

Her newest venture, small scale sculptural works, recall the apertures of Barbara Hepworth’s forms. The textural amalgamation of ‘hair’, hessian and other materials suggest Meret Oppenheim’s surreal, fluffy objects. For Albricht, these pieces are not a ruptured break with her painting practice, but instead continue the three-dimensional thinking that is essential to her methodology across her creative output. The sculptures further emphasise the importance of physicality in Albricht’s practice. The sculptures showcase the intimate relationship of material and artist; one can sense Albricht’s hands manipulating the Papier-mâché Clay surface to create her gang of strangely human assemblages.

 

The exhibition thus captures Karolina Albricht at a pivotal moment in her career, as she moves into the realm of three-dimensional creation. The exhibition extends her established abstract painting practice and invites the viewer into a constructed world where painting and sculpture collide.

 

 

 

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Works
  • Karolina Albricht, Downside Up, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Downside Up, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Little Rhythms, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Little Rhythms, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Small Sounds, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Small Sounds, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Sound Bite, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Sound Bite, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Sternum Mileage, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Sternum Mileage, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Thigh Ahead, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Thigh Ahead, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Rib Twist, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Rib Twist, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Plain Features , 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Plain Features , 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, 10 Ton Overload, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, 10 Ton Overload, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, 1085 hPa, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, 1085 hPa, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, 10K Spin, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, 10K Spin, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, 180° Cellophane Breaker_18x14cm_2022, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, 180° Cellophane Breaker_18x14cm_2022, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, 18th Floor Dry , 2021
    Karolina Albricht, 18th Floor Dry , 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, A.D. Residue, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, A.D. Residue, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Airtight Fold, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Airtight Fold, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Circuit Malfunction, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Circuit Malfunction, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Cranium Spin, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Cranium Spin, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Cross Hairs Threshold, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Cross Hairs Threshold, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Deep Trim , 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Deep Trim , 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Ear to Mouth, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Ear to Mouth, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Excessive Illumination, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Excessive Illumination, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Extra Synchronicity, 2020
    Karolina Albricht, Extra Synchronicity, 2020
  • Karolina Albricht, Fly Trap, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Fly Trap, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Fourth Thought, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Fourth Thought, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Headlight Management, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Headlight Management, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Long Noise, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Long Noise, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Mainstream Transmission, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Mainstream Transmission, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Mouthpiece Exchange, 2021
    Karolina Albricht, Mouthpiece Exchange, 2021
  • Karolina Albricht, Nasolabial Alteration, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Nasolabial Alteration, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Voicebox Tailgating, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Voicebox Tailgating, 2022
  • Karolina Albricht, Voltage Transit, 2022
    Karolina Albricht, Voltage Transit, 2022
Close
Installation Views
  • 16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin.
    16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin. 
  • 16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin.
    16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin. 
  • 16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin.
    16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin. 
  • 16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin.
    16 Branches High, 2022. Photography by Ben Deakin. 
Close
Press
  • Made in Shoreditch - Ballet Review

    Mackenzee Simms, Made in Shoreditch, 6 April 2022
  • ART PLUGGED: Studio West collaboration with Portobello Dance School

    Art Plugged, 23 March 2022
Events
  • Portobello Dance x STUDIO WEST

    Portobello Dance x STUDIO WEST

    Studio West commissioned a ballet performance in response to 16 BRANCHES HIGH 24 March 2022
  • ARTIST Q&A with Karolina Albricht

    ARTIST Q&A with Karolina Albricht

    HOSTED BY Jillian Knipe 30 March 2022
Video

Related artist

  • Karolina Albricht

    Karolina Albricht

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