Biography & CV

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Linda Karshan                         

(American, b. 1947 in Minneapolis, MN, lives and works in London, UK, and New York, NY)

Guided by what she calls her “inner choreography,” Linda Karshan makes spare seemingly abstract prints and drawings that serve as direct reflections of the process of their making. Though she began her career producing expressive compositions, in 1994 she developed a performance-based method for making work, in which every mark is associated with her rhythmic and regulated breathing, her counter-clockwise turning of the paper, the motion of her entire body, and the musical way in which she counts off increments of time. Based on her studies of psychology and Plato’s theory that the universe is ordered numerically, Karshan’s method results in iterative images of intersecting lines, forming grids, geometric shapes and patterns, and, sometimes, ordered yet loosely scribbled marks repeating across the page.

Karshan was educated at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (1965-67); the Sorbonne, Paris (1967-68); and the Slade School of Art, University College London (1969). In 1983, she earned a Masters in Humanistic Psychology from Antioch Centre for British Studies, London. Her MA thesis, entitled Play, Creativity and the Birth of the Self, focused on D.W. Winnicott's theories of transitional space and creativity, which are central to Karshan's artistic practice.

Karshan's solo museum exhibitions include those at Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, Germany (2013); Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK (2003); Sir John Soane's Museum, London, UK (2002); and Institut Valencia d'Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2002). Her works were featured in group exhibitions at the Courtauld Gallery, London, UK (2014, 2012), Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK (2013, 2010), Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, Germany (2013), British Museum, London, UK (2010), Graphische Sammlung, Munich, Germany (2009), and Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany (2008) among others. She regularly exhibits with several galleries in Europe, and with ART 3 in Brooklyn, NY.

Karshan's drawings, prints and artist's books are held in public and private collections, including in the UK: The British Library, The British Museum, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Tate Modern, The Arts Council Collection – all in London, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, Middlesbrough Musuem of Modern Art (MIMA), Middlesbrough, England; in the US: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; The Morgan Library, New York, NY; and a suite of thirteen prints have been recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

BIOGRAPHY

1947   Born in Minneapolis, MN; Lives and works in New York, NY and London, UK

EDUCATION

1983    MA in Psychology, Antioch Centre for British Studies, London, UK
1968-69   The Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, UK
1967-68   Art History, The Sorbonne, University of Paris, France
1965-67   Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019
Retrospective Drawing Exhibition 1992-2019, with Redfern Gallery at DRAW Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London
The Library for L’Aquila by Linda Karshan, for Nine Artists for Reconstruction, the library of Palazzo dell'Emiciclo, L’Aquila, Italy (with catalogue)

2018
Equilibrio - Linda Karshan: Art, Architecture & Sacred Geometry in Conversation, San Giorgio Maggiore Abbey, Venice, Italy (with catalogue)
Kaltnadelradierungen und Farbholzchnitte 2016, Galerie Biedermann, Munich

2017
Linda Karshan-Frauke Schlitz in Dialogue, Silas von Morisse Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Linda Karshan – Studio View: Prints and Drawings 1983 – 2017, Redfern Gallery (with book launch of Studio View)
The Fairest Bond: Linda Karshan, Drawings and Printed Editions from 1996-2016, Galerie Hein Elferink, Staphorst, The Netherlands
Linda Karshan at the Reform: Marks & Traces, Reform Club Exhibition, London (with text Matter to Matter by Elizabeth Tomos, RCA)

2016
Footfalls and Related Drawings, Galerie Biedermann, Munich
Intensity - Drawings and Prints, Galerie Werner Klein, Cologne

2015
SOUNDINGS, Satellite Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Footfalls, Neils Borch Jensen, Berlin, Germany
Linda Karshan. Signs of Men, March 4- April 5, Silas von Morisse Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Signs of Men (with catalogue), and Footfalls with Drawings and Prints by Linda Karshan from the collection of Victor Skipp, Redfern Gallery, London, UK

2014
Linda Karshan’s presentation at The Intelligent Hand, 1500-1800. Sixth Early Modern Symposium, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK (November 8)
Linda Karshan: New Forms, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany

2013
Linda Karshan: Lines and Movement 1984-2012, Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern, Germany

2012
Linda Karshan – Drawings, Galerie Werner Klein, Cologne, Germany
Light-Points, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
Measure for Measure, Neils Borch Jensen, Berlin, Germany
New Drawings, Redfern Gallery, London, UK

2011
New Works – Measure without Measure, Cain Schulte Contemporary, San Francisco, CA

2010
Strich für Strich, Galerie Werner Klein, Cologne, Germany
Movements, and their Images, Rhode Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark
Movements, and their Images, Redfern Gallery, London, UK
Movements, and their Images, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
It's a Greek Thing: New Edition of 10 Drypoints and Jottings, Galerie Hein Elferink, Staphorst, The Netherlands
The Greek Thing, Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany

2008
Forms of Time II, Redfern Gallery, London, UK
Linda Karshan: Time Being, A Fifteen Year Retrospective, Cain Schutle Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Early Drawings, Galerie Werner Klein, Cologne, Germany
Drawing as Process, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany

2007
Two Clear Days, Redfern Gallery, London, UK

2004
Studio View, Riflemaker, London, UK
Constellation and Chance, Redfern Gallery, London, UK

2003
Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
Marks and Moves, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK

2002
Linda Karshan – Grids, Stacks and Other Moves, Redfern Gallery, London, UK
Linda Karshan, IVAM – Institut Valencia d'Art Modern, Valencia, Spain
Linda Karshan, Sir John Soane Museum, London, UK

2001
Linda Karshan, Dee-Glasoe Gallery, New York, NY

2000
Linda Karshan, Michael Martin Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1999
Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany

1998
National Museum of Art, Bistritzia, Romania
Museo Contemporaneo, Baia Mare, Romania
Museo Nacional de Arte, Cluj, Romania
National Theatre, Bucarest, Romania
Linda Karshan Prints and Drawings, Redfern Gallery, London, UK

1997
Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
Linda Karshan: Marks and Traces, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, NY

1995
Linda Karshan: New Works, Montgomery-Glasoe Fine Art, Minneapolis, MN

1994
Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany

1993
Montgomery-Glasoe Fine Art, Minneapolis, MN

1991
Galerie Biedermann, London, UK
Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
ASB Galley, London, UK

1986
ASB Galley, London, UK

1985
ASB Galley, London, UK

1984
ASB Gallery, London, UK

1984
Clarendon Gallery, London, UK

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020
Unquiet Moments: Capturing the Everyday, MA Curating the Museum, The Courtauld Institute of Art (online exhibition)
The Variety of Line II : Drawings and Objects, Galerie Werner Klein, Cologne, Germany

2017
Celestial Mechanics: Tess Jaray, Linda Karshan, Jeanne Masoero, Megan Piper, London, UK
The Line is Thought - Fascination Drawing, Twelve contemporary artistic positions at Galerie Stihl Waiblingen, Waiblingen, Germany

2016
Let No Day Pass Without Leaving a Line of Oneself, Satellite Berlin, Berlin, Germany

2014
Henrik Eiben and Linda Karshan, Galerie Hein Elferink, Staphorst, The Netherlands
Bruegel to Freud: Prints from The Courtauld Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery, London, UK (with catalogue)
Inaugural Exhibition, Silas von Morisse Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2013
A Lasting Legacy: The House and Collection of Victor Skipp, curated by Dr Jennifer Powell, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK (with catalogue)
Lines Crossed: Inner Spaces, works on paper by Linda Karshan & Robert Edelman, Waterhouse & Dodd, New York, NY
The Redfern at 90: An Anniversary Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London, UK
System and Sensuality – The Collection of the Ernset Schering Foundation: Contemporary Drawing from Tom Chamberlain to Jorinde Voigt, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany

2012
Uncharted – Works on Paper, Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Linda Karshan and Marian Breedveld (to present Desire Paths: ten woodcuts by Linda Karshan with poems by Tamar Yoseloff), Galerie Hein Elferink, Staphorst, The Netherlands
Lines Crossed: Grids and Rhythms on Paper, Courtauld Gallery, London, UK
Wandering Lines II, England & Co, London, UK

2011
Magna Carta: Art/Paper, Kit Schulte Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Gruppenausstellung: Possessed by the Line, Kit Schulte Gallery, Berlin
Wandering Lines: Automatic Drawing to Abstraction, England & Co, London, UK

2010
Magna Carta: Art/Paper, Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
The Courtauld Collects: 20 Years of Acquisitions, Courtauld Gallery, London, UK
Group Print Exhibition, Leipzig, Germany
Modern Times, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK
Inaugural Group Show, Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Lines in Space: Paule Vezelay and Linda Karshan, England & Co., London, UK
Re-Opening Exhibition, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany
Picasso to Julie Mehretu: Modern Drawings for the British Museum Collection, British Museum, London,
Modern Times, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK

2009
Redfern Gallery, London, UK
A Winter Salon, Gallery Bjorn Ressle, New York, NY
L'Artistes de Nunc, Brussels, Belgium
Presence of the Line, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, Germany

2008
A Winter Salon, Gallery Bjorn Ressle, New York, NY

2007
Portraiture: Tom Fecht, Linda Karshan, Paul Raguenes, Eyestorm Gallery, London, UK

2001
Unexpected Encounters, Galleria Prisma, Bolzano, Italy

2000
Underlying Perfection, Gallery Fine, London, UK

1999
White Out, Gallery Fine, London, UK

1997
Montgomery-Glasoe Fine Art, Minneapolis, MN
Contemporary British Drawings, Edward Tyler-Nahem Fine Art, New York, NY
Redfern Gallery, London, UK

1995
Redfern Gallery, London, UK

1990
Runkel-Hue-Williams Gallery, London, UK

1988
The Legacy of Surrealism in Contemporary Art, Ben Shahn Galleries, William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ

1986
Drawings, Lorence-Monk Gallery, New York, NY

1985
New Talent, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY

(Thank you to Silas von Morisse Gallery for the initial biography preparation)