Karen Knorr (Frankfurt, 1954) obtained the 5th PILAR CITOLER INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY PHTOGRAPHY AWARD in 2010. To mark the occasion, the Sala PuertaNueva in Cordoba will open the first individual restrospective exhibition of this artist in Spain on 23rd February 2012, showing a selection of forty works of art, dated between 1976 and 2011, in which a wide representation of the diverse series of this artist are shown: Punk, 1976-1977(in collaboration with Olivier Richon); Gentlemen, 1981-1983; Connoisseurs, 1986-1990; Academies, 1994-2005; Fables, 2003-2008 and India Song, 2008-2011. For this exhibition, curated by Alfonso de la Torre with Karen Knorr the fifth volume of the collection EL OJO QUE VES will be launched. Quentin Bajac and Kathy Kubicki have also participated in this book. It has been edited by Ediciones del Umbral and will be distributed by La Fábrica.
Karen Knorr studied in London and Paris, exhibiting her photographic work globally since the 1980’s. She has lectured and taught in many institutions internationally including Tate Britain, Tate Modern, The University of Westminster, Goldsmiths, Harvard and The Art Institute of Chicago. Knorr obtained a BA Hons in PHotography and Filmic Arts in 1980 from the University of Westminster where she studied in the late seventies. She is currently Professor of Photography at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey (www.karenknorr.com).With respect to the authors of the fifth volume of ‘El Ojo que Ves’ that will be launched together with this exhibition, it features essays by Quentin Bajac, Head Curator of Photography at the Pompidou Centre, who has written that, ‘in her work, the individual disappears little by little in benefit of the space and the things that surround it.’Kathy Kubicki, an academic and writer, Senior Lecturer at the University for the Creative Arts has observed that ‘ritual, ostentation and death are key concepts in the fascinating work of Knorr. It is poetic work, profoundly mysterious, lively and elegant, involving original concepts and ideas and innovative production methods’.Alfonso de la Torre the commisioner of the exhibition also observes that, ‘Knorr manages to bore through appearances gently yet without mercy and create, from a common reality, a new space in which an unknown fullness opens out, a kind of transfiguring epiphany of the common place’. The exhibition dedicated to Karen Knorr coincides with that exhibiting the works from the VI Award held in 2011 and given to Jorge Yeregui. The following artists’ works will also be shown: Colectivo MR (Ricardo Ramón Jarne-Marina García Burgos Benfield); Anna Fox; Álvaro Laiz García; Wendy McMurdo; Esteban Pastorino Díaz; Joana Pimentel; Rubio Infante and Paco Valverde Gámez.Pilar Citoler is a renowned art collector. In 2005 she received the ARCO Prize for private collections in Spain, and in 2007 the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. She was chairperson on the board of the Reina Sofia National Art Museum between 2005 and 2010. Last year, a selection from her photography collection was shown at the Andalusian Photography Centre (Centro Andaluz de Fotografía-CAF) in Almería, under the title ‘La ciudad magnifica’.