Artists: Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin
Exhibition title: Counsel
Venue: Springsteen, Baltimore, US
Date: March 13 – April 17, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Springsteen, Baltimore
She spends her savings on a house in a mountainous region near the opal mines. There she sits on a balcony completing her crossword. No one around, as she wishes, except for her grey windhound at the gate. Spring in solitude arrives and she wakes every sunrise to a thick mist which refuses to lift. Sound travels quick and far through fog as the particles are closer together. Unlocatable voices gather in the yard, whispering about directions, politics, auto repair. A cloud perpetually rests upon the house. Nothing visible past the driveway, though somewhere the cliff must end. The windows stay shut so that the chatter doesn’t get pulled in. Inside, everything smells like damp soil. Puddles form as she walks across the shag carpet, leaving behind a slugs trail of dew. She pleads to me on the phone, trying to tell me her house is stuck in some terrible climate, but all I can make out are futile sounds, a heavy wet mass like an overripe tomato dropping onto cold concrete.
– Nicolette Polek
Maren Karlson is an artist working in drawing and painting. She lives in Berlin, Germany. She has shown her work at in lieu (Los Angeles), Intersticio (Madrid), Real Pain Fine Arts (Los Angeles), Interstate Projects (Brooklyn), Futura (Prague), 427 Gallery (Riga), Melange Gallery (Cologne), American Medium (Brooklyn) and Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco) among others.
Kira Scerbin (b. 1991, Cleveland, OH) received a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. She lives and works in Chicago. Exhibitions include Radiator at Catbox Contemporary (Ridgewood, NY), Pot of Snot at Prairie (Chicago), and When They Pet Brain at King’s Leap (Brooklyn), Bar Art at Interstate Projects curated by Sinkhole Project (Brooklyn), and Give Plaza at in lieu (Los Angeles) among others.
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Crawler, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, 14⅛ x 28⅜ in.
Maren Karlson, Crawler, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, 14⅛ x 28⅜ in.
Maren Karlson, Crawler, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, 14⅛ x 28⅜ in.
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Kira Scerbin, Coming, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 21 x 16½ x 2 in.
Kira Scerbin, Coming, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 21 x 16½ x 2 in.
Kira Scerbin, Coming, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 21 x 16½ x 2 in.
Kira Scerbin, Hare, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 22¾ x 13¾ x 1½ in.
Kira Scerbin, Hare, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 22¾ x 13¾ x 1½ in.
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 40½ x 32¾ x 2½ in.
Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 40½ x 32¾ x 2½ in.
Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 40½ x 32¾ x 2½ in.
Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, oil on canvas in artist frame, 40½ x 32¾ x 2½ in.
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Star, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, 9½ x 14⅛ in.
Maren Karlson, Star, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, 9½ x 14⅛ in.
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, Counsel, 2021, exhibition view, Springsteen, Baltimore
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, An angel isn’t born and doesn’t die, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, papier-mâché, wood, 34½ x 37¾ x 4 in.
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, An angel isn’t born and doesn’t die, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, papier-mâché, wood, 34½ x 37¾ x 4 in.
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, An angel isn’t born and doesn’t die, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, papier-mâché, wood, 34½ x 37¾ x 4 in.
Maren Karlson, Kira Scerbin, An angel isn’t born and doesn’t die, 2021, Colored pencil and UV varnish on canvas, papier-mâché, wood, 34½ x 37¾ x 4 in.