Karen FARKAS
Introduction
Karen Farkas was born in 1972 in Paris. She has always been painting but she first studied architecture to widen and sharpen her vision of the world. In 1997, she graduated from the Ecole d'Architecture Paris Villemin with her “L'abre entier est aussi pour l'oiseau le vestibule du nid” project.
Through research on social housing, invention and creation of decors for great collectors, she still practices architecture. In 2002, she gave in to her deepest calling and devoted herself exclusively to painting and drawing.
“We always look outside for an object of desire. Yet, trouble is one facet of the human's inwardness.
Here, the painter is no voyeur: he only expresses an inward – even introspective – vision. Sketching bodies to touch the soul: the desire upsurge and its threat are these nudes' motives.
To wait or to clasp, plenitude or absence, the desire demands the full empire. Its moods force their rhythm onto the canvas which successive beats makes it move forwards the incessant alternation of expectation and completeness. The white areas answer to absence, the still possible toppling and fall of figures, the illusory frailty of the stretched and almost transparent colours.
Abstraction, narrative or narrative abstraction? We look at this story from afar, at the point where a scene can be summarized by a few sentences. The unconscious intrudes in the language's ellipses as well as in automatic writing.
Every gesture is intentional and directed. But the stain appears, and surprises us like the chance of an encounter.
If the touch is unpredictable, the result is always precise.
At the end, a feeling of serenity strangely emanates from these paintings, as if they were landscapes.”
Biography
Solo exhibitions
2024
- Inattendu, Coldefy, Paris, France
2022
- À mon seul désir, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
2020
- Nardone Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium
2018
- Tête à tête, Melissa Coote / Karen Farkas, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
2015
- Paysages fugitifs, Minsky Gallery, Paris, France
2013
- Céline Poisat Bookshop, Paris, France
2011
- Après l'homme, Céline Poisat Bookshop, Paris, France
- L'autre état, Julien Fourrey Studio, Paris, France
2008
- Peirce Gallery, Paris, France
2007
- Etienne de Causans Gallery, Paris, France
Group exhibitions
2024
- Influensored, galerie P. Ostende, Belgium
2023
- Les flaneries d'art contemporain, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Midsummerdaydream, galerie P. Ostende, Belgium
2022
- Pleins feux, La Chapelle de Clairefontaine, France
2021
- Le dessin de A à Z, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
- Cadavre Exquis, Venise, Italie
2020
- Bleu, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
- La semaine de l'art, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
2019
- Paysages, La Chapelle, Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, France
- Busan International Art Fair, galerie baudoin lebon, South Korea
2018
- Art Busan, avec baudoin lebon, Busan, South Korea
- Private Collection, Materiaux gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2017
- Art Busan, with baudoin lebon, Busan, South Korea
- KIAF, with baudoin lebon, Seoul, South Korea
- S.T ART Foire européenne d'art contemporain, galerie baudoin lebon, Paris, France
2012
- Céline Poisat Bookshop, Paris, France
2010
- Affordable Art Fair Paris, with Peirce Gallery, Paris, France
2009
- The Winter Show, artist invited, Peirce Gallery, Paris, France
- Art London, with Peirce Gallery, Chelsea, London, UK
2008
- Art London, with Peirce Gallery, Chelsea, London, UK
public collections
Musverre