Nils Karsten (b. 1970, Hamburg, Germany) studied painting at School of Visual Arts, New York and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, USA before receiving his MFA in painting from Vermont College of the Union Institute, Montpelier in Vermont, USA.
Read MoreKarsten’s work comprises a variety of material, including woodcut, pencil drawings, and collage work. The artist draws inspiration from everyday images that he finds from record covers, magazines, newspapers, propaganda, photographs, and other images originally claimed by the political or the social. The process of his work is the reclamation of those images of influence through cutting, carving, moving things around, and gluing.
Nils Karsten has been shown internationally, including the following selected solo shows: Suburbia Hamburg 1983 (2012–13), Churner and Churner, New York, USA; 1969, 1970, 1971 (2011), The Bogart Salon, Brooklyn, USA; Can’t Find My Way Home (2011), Illuminated Metropolis, New York, USA; Collagen & Zeichnungen (2010), Anke Richter Galerie, Friedrichstadt, Germany; Heaven Has No Happy Ending (2006), Marvelli Gallery, New York, USA; and 60 Seconds in Heaven (2005), Marvelli Gallery, New York, USA. Karsten’s works have been featured in the following publications: The Last Picture Show (The New Yorker, 2014), Best in Show: Gone Vicious (The Village Voice, 2013), Out of Heaven (Figaro Japon, 2004), 60 Seconds in Heaven (Artforum 2004), and Deliberate Irreverence (Los Angeles Times, 2004).
