PAST EXHIBITION: This was part of the EAF21 programme.

In 2021 Scottish artist Karla Black was invited to be the first to show in both the exhibition galleries and the newly opened warehouse space of the redeveloped Fruitmarket building. The exhibition made the most of the inspirational, materially resonant spaces, combining existing and new work in an attempt to ‘force a raw creative moment’ into the pristine, newly developed gallery building.

A selection of sculpture made since 2001 filled the ground floor galleries with standing, hanging and low-lying volumes and planes, constructed from and worked on with Black’s signature powders, pastes, oils, creams and gels. The works set the stage for two major new commissions, made by the artist in the upstairs gallery and the new warehouse space in the weeks before the exhibition opens.

With the raw energy of its making still fresh when we see it, Black’s work clears a thinking space for us in the time and space of our encounter with it. It is creative freedom in action, embodying the trust the Fruitmarket places in the artist and the artist places in her materials and her process.