For his exhibition this spring, Karl Holmqvist will exhibit a series of new text-based, digitally printed canvases in an intimate installation that includes graffiti and a series of concrete poetry published as leporellos on display in vitrines. Together, the works unpack the many operations of language, how it can occupy space and provoke ‘invisible images’ within memory and imagination.
During his exhibition, the public programme will include: What is it that comes crawling in the morning?, an evening of spoken word readings by Holmqvist in the Camden Arts Centre Garden, bringing poetry not only to the audience but also ‘to the flowers and trees and their surroundings’.
Holmqvist is known for using a wide range of formats – poetry readings, installation and
sculpture – to bring out the primal qualities of language. He is one of a current generation of
artists working with language and text as a sculptural or performative material. Currently
based in Berlin, Holmqvist says his work is meant to spark the creative process in the viewer, seeing his art and poetry as a translation of the complexities of contemporary life. He blends poetry with pop music and his texts, composed of anecdotes as famous as they are diverse, explore the theme of communication and language.
Karl Holmqvist: READ DEAR 24th March – 5th June 2016 Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, London NW3 6DG camdenartscentre.org
About Karl Holmqvist
Born, Västerâs, Sweden (1964), lives and works in Berlin. Karl Holmqvist participated in the 2003 and 2011 Venice Biennial. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language, 2012), the Performa performance art biennial and during the Serpentine Gallery summer pavilion marathons. This spring he opens an exhibition of new works at the Power Station in Dallas, Texas.
Camden Arts Centre – Inspiring art since 1965
Camden Arts Centre is a venue for contemporary visual art and education, where ideas are made visible and people of all ages and abilities can engage in the creative process of making. Camden Arts Centre’s pioneering and varied programme of artist-led courses and other education activities has gained an international reputation as a model of good practice. It is a forward-thinking organisation where artists and others can see, make and talk about art.
