Karo Kuchar Austrian, b. 1986

Her conceptual work is based on the idea of a symbiosis between body and space, and focuses on the various concepts of the skin as a shell or cover, as well as the body as an architectural structure. She critically examines society, legal aspects of art and the economic market, as well as feminism. Her so called skins made out of fabric capture the imprint of walls in old buildings and the appearance of female garment, erecting a structure with an ambivalent form. „The artist stretches bikinis and swim trunks across stretcher frames, sometimes combining them into ultra-crisp "pairs." Provided with mischievous titles, she transforms bare walls into pieces of clothing, thus humorously referencing the last piece of cloth that covers our most private parts. The focus of her interest are transformation processes, appropriations and conditions that lead to a change in optics. In her latest group of works (“Juicy Series”), the material's narrative potential and the network of relationships between space and body fill parts of organza fabric with skin-colored curves. Striped wall surfaces are stretched in between to show the fragmented body from behind. Sensual “soft sculptures” burst the frame
in voluminous bulges, arching into the room and revealing a playful approach to the genre of wall reliefs. The Tinder Boy series contradicts the screens of our smartphones. These works show individual profiles of the dating app "Tinder" made of cotton, organza, leather, acrylic paint and filler. Machine-sewn representations, “fragile egos” of ripped upper bodies and erect penises in colorful boxer shorts, together with painted symbols and texts, reveal information about their potent wearers. The screen is also a new piece of skin that we carry in front of us.“ (Barbara Horvath, art historian and curator)