Karla Marchesi
Born in 1984 in Brisbane, lives in Berlin
Karla Marchesi studied fine arts and painting in Australia and the United States and developed an interest in object portraiture. In 2012 she undertook a studio residency in Berlin and has since been working there. She also participated in group shows in America, Australia, Asia and Europe and had solo exhibitions in Brisbane, Melbourne and Singapore. Her works are in public and private collections in Australia, Germany and Luxembourg. ARTSCAPE’s exhibition Floral Atlas is her first solo show in Europe since the 2013 exhibition at the Berlin Kunsthalle.
Marchesi’s work draws on a lexicon of art history and the everyday as a means to deconstruct contemporary social mores. Framed by traditions of memento mori and vanitas painting, her previous work featured scenes of chaotic domestic interiors, suburban vistas and animated landscapes; metaphorically portraying the human subject in its absence.
For her new series Floral Atlas, the artist created a number of impossible bouquet paintings in which she takes on the still life genre of the flower arrangement to explore intersections between nature and culture.