Klara Kristalova (born 1967) is a sculptor, who works predominantly in ceramics and stoneware. She employs a deliberately imperfect Meissen porcelain technique, working in a similar fashion but with larger forms and figures. She lives and works in Sweden. Kristalova has exhibited internationally in solo and group shows in London, Paris, Miami, New York, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Santa Fe as part of Museum Site Santa Fe, Stockholm at the National Museum, West Palm Beach at the Norton Museum of Art and Santa Barbara in the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum.

Personal background

Klara Kristalova was born in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and raised in Sweden; she currently lives and works in

Norrtälje Norrtälje is a locality and the seat of Norrtälje Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 17,275 inhabitants in 2010. It is one of the largest towns in Roslagen. History Norrtälje’s early history dates back to the Iron Age. Around 225 ...

, Sweden. Her father is Czech artist Eugen Krajcik and her mother was Helena Kristalova. She attended the

Royal University College of Fine Arts The Royal Institute of Art ( sv, Kungliga Konsthögskolan) is an institution in Stockholm, Sweden for higher education in art,Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

, Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berling, old DC comics, and

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

serve as an inspiration to her work. By using these works and adding her own twist, Kristalova explores memory, trauma, and the lost territory of childhood. Her characters are mostly girls, who morph into flora, fauna, and other natural elements. According to art critic Anders Olofsson, "Klara Kristalova is a storyteller who uses the plasticity of sculpture to build micro worlds, where something peculiar has just happened or is about to happen. Here she relates to a sculpture tradition that has its roots several hundred years in the past. In this tradition the three-dimensional artwork is seen as a means of three-dimensionally "educating" the viewer in a realm inhabited by both the viewer and the artwork simultaneously through their common physical relationship to the room." Kristalova has exhibited internationally in solo and group shows in London, Paris, Miami, New York, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Santa Fe as part of

Site Santa Fe SITE Santa Fe (often referred to simply as SITE) is a nonprofit contemporary arts organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since its founding in 1995, SITE Santa Fe has presented 11 biennials, more than 90 contemporary art exhibitions, and wor ...

, Stockholm at the

Nationalmuseum Nationalmuseum (or National Museum of Fine Arts) is the national gallery of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm. The museum's operations stretches far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, the nationalmuseum manag ...

, West Palm Beach at the Norton Museum of Art and Santa Barbara in the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. In 2011, she had a solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery. Kristalova’s first survey at an American Museum was exhibited in 2014 at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida. She has created numerous public commissions in Sweden such as the memorial in the public garden park in Tungelsta, Stockholm; the entrance to Karlstad public park; and sculptures at Ostersunds University. Her work is part of public collections including the

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö in t ...

, Stockholm, Sweden and the

, Stockholm, Sweden.Klara Kristalova Biography, Alison Jacques Gallery
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References

External links

Klara Kristalova Official WebsiteLehmann Maupin GalleryAlison Jacques GalleryGalerie Emmanuel PerrotinNationalmuseum Stockholm

T Magazine, New York Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kristalova, Klara 1967 births Living people 20th-century Swedish women artists 21st-century Swedish women artists Swedish women sculptors Czechoslovak emigrants to Sweden 20th-century sculptors 20th-century women sculptors 21st-century sculptors Swedish contemporary artists