Karin Frank

Karin Frank (born 1972) is an Austrian sculptor known primarily for figurative wooden sculptures and portrait reliefs.

Life Karin Frank was born in Vienna. She trained in graphic design from 1987 to 1991 at the Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna. She then studied from 1992 to 1997 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where she studied in the class of Michelangelo Pistoletto. In 1995, as part of the Erasmus Programme, she studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid.

With the support of scholarships, Frank travelled to Saint Petersburg in 1998 and 2001. In 2002 she received the Recognition Award of the State of Lower Austria. Study residencies funded by scholarships from the Federal Chancellery of Austria and the Austrian federal ministries BMUKK and BMKOES took her, among other places, to Fujino, Japan (2006), Český Krumlov in the Czech Republic (2011), and Rome (2014).

Frank has participated in exhibitions since 1997. In 2004, Neue Galerie Graz, part of the Universalmuseum Joanneum, presented several of her works in a catalogue-accompanied solo exhibition.

Karin Frank lives in Vienna. Her studio is located in the courtyard of a residential building in Simmering.

Work

As a sculptor, Karin Frank primarily works with wood. She typically leaves its surfaces raw and unpolished, sometimes painting them with watercolor or acrylic paint. Occasionally she combines wood with textiles or other materials. She prepares larger works with design drawings or models made of modelling clay or aluminium foil.

Frank mainly depicts human figures, and less frequently animals. Her works include individual figures, pairs and small groups, sometimes placed on globe-like forms and surrounded by landscape elements. The figures often engage in sexual acts or interact with bodily excretions. There is an apparent contradiction between the drastic content and the harmless-looking aesthetic, which recalls folk art or toys.

Frank's oeuvre also includes woodcuts, most of which were created in 2011 during her study residency in Český Krumlov, and sculptural portrait works. After she won an art competition held by the University of Vienna for the creation of monuments to female scientists, her portrait reliefs of Olga Taussky-Todd and Grete Mostny, made of aluminium and bronze respectively, were installed in the Arcaded Court of the University of Vienna in 2016.

Works by Frank are held, among other institutions, in the collection of the City of Vienna, the Lower Austria Museum, the Artothek des Bundes and IKOB – Museum of Contemporary Art.

Selected works Erde 2, 2002, painted wood, 30.5 × 19 cm, Artothek des Bundes Schiele, 2005, polychrome painted wood, 130 × 70 × 50 cm, Lower Austria Museum Katze, 2007, painted wood, Landespensionisten- und Pflegeheim Hainfeld Bildhauerin, 2008, painted wood, 76 cm, Artothek des Bundes Venuspaar von Willendorf, 2010, painted wood and horn, temporary exhibition at the discovery site of the Venus of Willendorf, Lower Austria Museum Respiration, 2011, painted wood, 69 × 40 × 16.5 cm, Lower Austria Museum Partnerobjekt, 2011, painted wood, 28 × 85 × 29 cm, signed "Karin Frank / 11", Lower Austria Museum Kontorsionistin, 2013, partially polychromed wood, painted base plate, 100 cm, Lower Austria Museum Memorial to Olga Taussky-Todd, 2016, cast aluminium, 90 × 90 cm, Arcaded Court of the University of Vienna Memorial to Grete Mostny-Glaser, 2016, cast bronze, 115 × 65 cm, Arcaded Court of the University of Vienna Transpiration, 2017, painted wood, 68.5 × 39.7 × 16.5 cm, signed "Karin Frank, 17", Lower Austria Museum

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 2001: Transmedial Exercises: Renate Kordon, Karin Frank, Alfred Resch, Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz 2004: Karin Frank, Neue Galerie Graz

Group exhibitions 2000: Eigensinn und Eigensicht. Selbstportraits von Wiener Künstlern, MUSA Museum auf Abruf, Vienna 2003: Frauenbild. Fotografie, Skulptur und Video aus der Sammlung des Niederösterreichischen Landesmuseums, Lower Austria Museum 2006: Österreichische Kunst am oberen Tassenrand, IKOB – Museum of Contemporary Art, Eupen 2010: "Ich ist ein anderer" – Die Kunst der Selbstdarstellung, Lower Austria Museum 2010: raum_körper_einsatz, MUSA Museum auf Abruf, Vienna 2012: den blick öffnen, Stadtmuseum Wiener Neustadt 2018: Die 90er Jahre – Eine Ausstellung in drei Aufzügen, MUSA, Vienna 2022: Rendezvous mit der Sammlung, Landesgalerie Niederösterreich, Krems 2022: Welcome my Deer | Tierkunst : Kunsttier, Bildraum Bodensee, Bregenz

References

Karin Frank

Bron en licentie