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Karen Grainger
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Degree: MA Photography
University: London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Graduation Year: 2009
New Blood Art Statement
The works from Re: Series are taken with a methodology that removes the pre-conditioned ‘point and shoot’ technique we often default to, and interjects the additional plane of a mirror’s surface to unsettle the composition and the landscape’s ‘knowableness’.
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Artist Statement
My practice explores the perceptual and material limits of the photograph. Work often juxtaposes the potential for great beauty within the image with visual markers that toy with surface and depth.When I’m shooting, I have no idea whether anything interesting will appear in the frame, until I glimpse something just for a split second. Then, I have to react and fire off the shutter, all whilst precariously balancing mirror, camera and my position. Quite a spontaneous, refreshing way of taking photographs and really rewarding when you discover the detail of what you’ve caught back in the studio.
A re-occurring feature within the images is the shearing and smearing of the bevelled edges of the mirrors I use. This slippage area acts as an optical marker between the parts of the image that are reflected and those that are not, hinting that the images are not as they first appear.
Writers on photography that I’ve enjoyed include Geoffrey Batchen, Urs Stahel, Italo Calvino, Vilhelm Flusser and Roland Barthes. These writers reflect my ongoing interest in examining exactly what photography is, what we want from it, and its ongoing possibilities and meanings in contemporary culture today.
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Prizes and Honours
2011, Four works purchased for the National Photography Collection, National Media Museum
2011, Finalist, Fitzrovia Photography Prize, Diemar Noble Gallery
2011, Two Bronze IPA awards
2010, Two Honourable Mentions, Julia Margaret Cameron Awards
2009, MA Star, Axis Artists
2009, Two Works Purchased, University of the Arts Public Collection
2004, Shortlisted, Jerwood Photography Awards
Solo Exhibitions
2012, Eight Bohemians, Dimbola Museum & Galleries, IOW
2010, Re: Landscape, Viewfinder Gallery, London
2005, Living Rooms, ESC Gallery, Graz, Austria
2004, Now You've Seen It, The New Art Gallery, Walsall
Group Exhibitions
2012, 'Fringe Focus', Phoenix Brighton, Brighton Photo Biennial
2012, 'The World in London', The Photographers Gallery, London Olympics
2011, 'Nine Pont Perspective', Hotshoe Gallery, London
2011, 'Print & Design Now!' SW1 & Bearspace Galleries, London
2011, Close Your Eyes and Tell Me What You See, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden
2010, Inside-Outside: The Invisibility of the Visible View, Piano Primo Gallery, Lecce, Italy
2010, Nature Rewritten, Wieden + Kennedy, Jotta Contemporary, London
2010, Summer in the City, The Little Black Gallery, London
2008, Spectre, Brighton Media Centre, Brighton Photo Biennial Fringe
2005, Urbanbodies, 127 Brick Lane, Whitechapel, London
2004, Imprint of The Orient/The West, Gallery Works, Osaka, Japan
2003, Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Manchester Cornerhouse & Victoria Miro Warehouse, London