Klara Kristalova’s ceramic figures are the kind of thing that look like they might have been produced during a therapy session at a lunatic asylum, and as unlikely as it sounds, I mean that in a good way. A bit disturbed, lonely, slightly detached from reality but with an undeniably recognisable grounding in the everyday. Nordic stories and traditional myths are the fantastical cornerstones on which is built the fragile world of these figures, who form an unusual travelling family circus of sorts.
Collectively known as Underworld, these entertaining if a bit unsettling characters have pitched their tents at Galerie Perrotin in New York. They are much bigger than they appear in our photos, some as tall as three foot, and stand like gnomic statuary in an eccentric’s garden – what you might encounter on a walk around the grounds if you had been hiding the pills under your tongue. The circus wagons roll out for pastures new on 12 April.
Klara Kristalova
“She’s From The Woods” 2013
Glazed stoneware
Photo, Carl Henrik Tillberg
Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
Klara Kristalova
“The Wedding” (detail) 2013
Glazed stoneware
Photo, Carl Henrik Tillberg
Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
Klara Kristalova
“Remembering” 2013
Glazed stoneware
Photo, Carl Henrik Tillberg
Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
Klara Kristalova
“Owl Woman” 2013
Glazed stoneware
Photo, Carl Henrik Tillberg
Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
Klara Kristalova
“Siren” (detail) 2014
Glazed stoneware
Photo, Carl Henrik Tillberg
Courtesy Galerie Perrotin
