Karla Kaplun

Addressing how colonial impacts have shaped Mexican cultural identity both explicitly and implicitly, her visual language is characterized by vivid and fluid bodies emerging from dark, enigmatic backgrounds into surreal scenes where rational order unravels, only to be defined by the pictorial frame that encloses them. The use of dramatic lighting accentuates these ethereal figures while illuminating hidden spectres and remains, establishing a haunting equivalency between the realms of the living and the dead, emphasizing intense drama and emotion.

Filled with visual riddles and references, Kaplun’s works author narratives that subversively mirror the complex layering of cultural heritage with everyday identity. Paradoxes abound in her paintings, boldly portraying the clash between reality and artifice, revelry and despair, sacred and profane. Drawing inspiration from Mexican Socialist Realism to the European Baroque to popular culture, Kaplun’s work confronts and questions longstanding societal structures and power relations while rendering syncretic formations of identity and selves.

Karla Kaplun was born in 1993 in Querétaro, Mexico. She currently lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico. Recent solo exhibitions include: High Art, Paris, France; Gaga & Reena Spaulings Los Angeles, USA; House of Gaga, Mexico City, Mexico. Recent group shows include: Lodos Gallery, San Rafael, Mexico City, Mexico; Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo, Japan; Britta Rettberg, Munich, Germany.