Karen Salicath is a young Danish artist, sculptor and ceramicist, born in 1968 and graduated from the Danish School of Design, in Denmark, Copenhagen in 1991. Hereafter she has participated in countless exhibitions throughout the world – and has received a number of foundations and awards from the international art scene.
Her universe contains graceful sensual bodies (often feminine) carved in granite or shaped in bronze, in deep and mused silence. As an inheritor of the proud traditions of the sculpture, Salicaths work speaks both the ancient and the modern language – with elements of both.
The themes are most often inspired by the Christian, the Greek and also the Nordic mythology: The Engel, the Seraph, Leda and the Swan, the sons of Gefion. This last myth, Nordic and popular, was the main theme in a comprehensive exhibition presented at Gallery Art Front in Tokyo. Keen on creating a united room – but also communicate the story of the sons of Gefion – Karen Salicath arrayed the different sculptures in a kind of installation The Water Room to which the American musician Bob Rickett had composed an audio tape.
In this work Salicath was interested in the four elements, which were presented emblematic in the myth about the Kings four sons in the Swedish Gefion. Especially the element of water was accentuated, recalled in the glass base of the sculptures in reduced size – and especially by the music of Bob Rickett Blue Water. Karen Salicath regards this element, water, as a symbol of emotions and love.
Simultaneously with her gallery work, Salicath has produced works for the public audience. The delicate, feminine lines, sometimes monumental, are opposed to the stiffness of the materials. The appearance of the bodies or rather their positions – both graceful and powerful – create a simple and minimalistic expression- and emotional task. More often than not the figures represent or pass on a visible and catching feeling to the viewer.
The choice to put her work at the disposal of a public audience shows the artists goodwill to make her art approachable – but also her interest in creating an interactive element between her sculptures and the busy citizen. One of the most important pillars in Salicaths art is the universal: Therefore her messages are simple and the bodies impersonal in the way that detailed features of face, hands and feet are deselected. Her forms are densified. This anonymity makes the artist create more and more abstract persons, which lose their divine and mythological qualities so that they become more human.
The pursuit for beauty is another fundamental character of her work. The lightness in the configuration, detailed conducted – translates the form of ancient heroism which she tries to transfer to her sculptures. Salicaths work melts naturally together with the subtle rhythms from the music and the lightning which stages the bodies – and give them life on their bases of glass and reflections. This kind of installation, strengthen our perception of total beauty, which is a natural step.
The art of Karen Salicath is built on past artistic and technical values, which are the Universal beauty. She has shown that she can evolve so that her work remains to make sense and she shows thereby her ability to respect the past and at the same time stay in the present. Face to face a serious and fascinating calmness shows. The stone and the bronze wrenches under the pressure of new emotions – and her inspirations are completely without time and place. Her art is modern filled with dreams, reflections and eternity.
Cathrine Bourlet
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