The Munchies Art Club proudly presents Karo Kuchar. Karo is a contemporary artist born and raised in Vienna and now living in Paris.
We discovered this wonderfully talented young artist at the Parallel Art Fair that, fortunately, was able to take place this year.
Even though she gets to travel and spend time in other wonderful countries, her base remains in Vienna.
From large installations to etchings and trashy movies, this multitalented artist impresses with her work.
Calling art made by a person with a vagina automatically “female art“ is ridiculous. - Karo Kuchar
Find out more for yourself and explore the art and the artist behind the work.
So, my name is Karo Kuchar and I was born in Vienna after my parents immigrated from the Czech Republic and Poland in the early 80ies.
But currently, I live and work in Paris – and I truly love it.
Although the French government imposed a curfew from 9 pm until 6 am, followed by a real lockdown due to the pandemic, I cannot complain.
The city does not lose its inspirational spirit and dirty charm – it is vivid, diverse, and never ever boring. That is why I wanted to move here, at least for a while.
After spending quite some time in Latin America, I wanted something different again, but keeping my base in Europe, so I can easily continue with my projects in Vienna.
Her studio and canvas, are the walls of old empty buildings, empty because they are about to be renovated or pulled down.
Even though I leave Vienna regularly, I always come back.
This cozy, grumpy city, will never lose its special place in my heart.
Nevertheless, I have an urge to move a lot and so I do it equally in respect to my artwork.
For a couple of years, I work mostly in and with old buildings.
Before those places are being destroyed anyway or get a completely new look due to upcoming renovations, I kind of camp there studio-wise.
I use them temporarily before their walls are being torn down and if possible, I transfer the wall material to my fabrics.
The roughness of the walls and the fragile transparent fabrics have a certain contrast I like to play with.
And later, when renovations start, I wander further to the next free spot.
Or I work on something completely different meanwhile.
Especially in winter, it gets a bit more complicated, since usually there is no heating in those spaces and sometimes not even electricity, so you have no light.
In such periods I often work on etchings and I love to make kind of trashy animation movies – the last one was a RomCom Trilogy which takes place during the first lockdown.
I also recently started to sew fabrics together to use them as a base for my paintings.
So there is always something going on, no matter if I get access to future construction places or not.
In my actual series, I transferred wall material in the shape of bikinis or swimwear on my fabrics – I guess I was strongly inspired by the time I spent in Brazil.
The Bikini is probably the most important piece of fabric over there. Also, it stands for empowerment.
I liked the idea of recreating this fashion item out of the cover of old walls. But my very first piece I started after being, as so often, very disappointed by the art world.
Calling art made by a person with a vagina automatically “female art“ is ridiculous.
Nobody does ever point it out if an artwork is made by a person who claims to have a penis.
As most other artists, I am very tired of it. So I thought, “ok there you go” by using the wording literally.
And then I simply kept on with my passion for people in beachwear and the mix of different materials.
I want to deconstruct and reconstruct the classical form of painting.
Besides that I just love the weird look of these “paintings”, which are actually no typical paintings, wearing bikinis out of old walls – and in general, I love if people have to smile a little or get confused when they look at my work.
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A big thank you to Karo, for sharing her work and her story with us!
