Featured
Go into the studio with abstract painter Aaron Karp
Published
Modified
Editor鈥檚 note: This is the final 鈥淔rom the Studio鈥� with Assistant Arts Editor Kathaleen Roberts, who is retiring this month.
Aaron Karp鈥檚 work dazzles.
Jewel-like shapes tumble across layer after layer of paint mapped out by tape. Fleeting star clusters crisscross and blaze. The canvas conceals and reveals. Color and space fractures to extract meaning.
Abstract painter Aaron Karp exhibits an extraordinary sense of playfulness
Known as one of New Mexico鈥檚 premier abstract painters, Karp鈥檚 career began in Albuquerque in the 1970s. He ping-ponged between jobs in New York (at the Guggenheim Museum) and museum director at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, before finally landing a job as an assistant professor of painting and drawing at the University of New Mexico.
When he won a Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program grant, a colleague donated one of his pieces to New York鈥檚 Guggenheim Museum. Karp鈥檚 career exploded into a full-time profession.
鈥淭hings just took off,鈥� he said.
The Guggenheim showed his work in their 1983 exhibition of 鈥淣ew American Paintings.鈥�
To scroll through Karp鈥檚 various series is to gaze at multicolored orbs, the swirls of somersaults and silhouettes of birds in flight, animated by his extraordinary sense of playfulness.
It was in North Carolina that he developed a grid pattern using tape.
鈥淚 began to introduce tape to define the graph, the lines inspired by the uniqueness of patterns found in Mexican pottery,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I really liked the geometry present in the way they were constructed.鈥�
The tape acts as a stencil. Abstraction allows him to pursue his love of shapes.
He began in upstate New York by digging clay from the bottom of a creek at 10 years old. He molded a pot and a neighbor let him fire it in his kiln. Of course, it exploded. But the neighbor gave him some artist clay and it worked.
He was an art major at Buffalo State University, where he began producing wood engravings.
鈥淚t was something about the repetition of building up a surface,鈥� Karp said.
He began painting in North Carolina and watched it evolve. He came to New Mexico in 1979.
Painting allows him to explore different shapes as he toggles between abstraction and representationalism, moving between geometry to recognizable forms.
His latest series 鈥淧erfect Season鈥� reveals his unique style of layering and breaking the surface with a grid of masking tape patterning the subject with surprises of color and form.
Star clusters embed themselves within the layers.
鈥淚 collect shapes like people collect clothes,鈥� Karp said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really research material. I鈥檒l see something and I鈥檒l make a stencil of it. I like shapes that are open, like doors or windows.鈥�
In the series 鈥淥rchid Birds鈥� he created profiles of various bird species in different poses.
鈥淯sing that vocabulary, I would layer these shapes to create an image,鈥� Karp said.
鈥淏indi鈥� is in tribute to his late standard poodle.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a star cluster painting,鈥� Karp said.
With its pseudo-Celtic designs, 鈥淒isguise鈥� actually derives from Japanese patterns.
鈥淚 think the Japanese refer to these shapes as fairy leaves,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t felt to me like things were tumbling.鈥�
鈥淟ittle Red鈥� echoes some of the shapes he used in 鈥淏indi,鈥� always in motion.
鈥淭he stars are clustered in the painting,鈥� Karp said. 鈥淏asically, it鈥檚 all star shapes. My paintings are about layering. I鈥檓 layering color. One shape blends into another.鈥�
Karp鈥檚 work hangs in the Albuquerque Museum. His most recent exhibitions include shows at Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis; William Havu Gallery, Denver; Lee Hansley Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina; Duke University Fine Art Museum, Durham, North Carolina; Artspace/Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables, Miami, Florida; LA Artcore, Los Angeles; New Concept Gallery, Santa Fe; Roswell Museum, Roswell; and Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago.
