Kara Güt
Kara Güt (1989, Cleveland (OH)) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Columbus, Ohio, whose primary focus is image-based, digital media. She received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills (2016). Kara investigates the new shape of human intimacy formed by internet lifestyle, constructed detachment from reality, and the power dynamics of the virtual. Using image and screen-based media, her work often questions ownership of digital spaces and how they mirror or perpetuate oppressive systems. The resulting pieces are subversions of power: at times manifesting as imperfect relics attempting to perform a hidden and ineffable magic, or long-form video essays haunting the devices they inhabit. Employing tropes of absurdist humor mixed with existential dread, her work pokes at the underpinnings of internet culture by appropriating the subgenres of the post-digital patriarchal industrial complex.
‘Nonspace Canon – beta’ (still), 2019, video 12′ 30”
‘Untitled Portraits 20 and 11’, 2019, Installation view, F(r)iction, Hopkins Hall Gallery, Columbus, OH, USA
‘Clipping Gradient’, 2019, Installation view, F(r)iction, Hopkins Hall Gallery, Columbus, OH, USA
‘Defense Formation AU’ (still), 2019, video 8′ 22”
‘Defense Formation AU’ (excerpt), 2019, video 8′ 22”
RPG Gothic, 2019, a 262-page catalog of free fantasy fonts sourced from the internet by artist Kara Güt, published by New Archive, NYC
‘Intimacy Mood’, Presence, 2018, Installation view, IRL Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, USA
‘An Inverted Position: the movements of my body are unidentified and inaccessible’, Presence, 2018, Installation view, IRL Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, USA
‘The Basic Bitch Bath’, 2017, Installation view, ESC, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, USA
‘Permissions’, 2017, Installation view, The Muted Horn Gallery, Cleveland, OH, USA
Solo Exhibitions
2020
· Dungeon Master, Washer/Dryer Projects, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
2018
· Presence, IRL Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, USA
2017
· Crystal Magic Weapon, Open Space, Baltimore, MD, USA
· ESC, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, OH, USA
· Permissions, The Muted Horn Gallery, Cleveland, OH, USA
Group Exhibitions
2022
· No es propio de esta época (Out of our own era), Centre Cultural Las Cigarreras, Alicante, Spain
2021
· Welcome to my Desert Nexus (deep inside my desert heart), Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY, USA
· Spawning Point, Stone House Art Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
2020
·Wayshrines I, II & III (an avatar manifesto),Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA
2019
· F(r)iction, Hopkins Hall Gallery, Columbus, OH, USA with Cole Lu and Ann Hirsch
· Going Away.tv, Arebyte Pavillion, The Wrong Biennale
· Games for Windows, Rochester Biennial, Rochester, NY, USA
· Longing/Desire, Expose Art House, Montgomery, AL, USA
· Beyond the Door, Art Night London, London, UK commissioned by Daata Editions
· The Edge of Reason, Phillips Auction House, New York, NY, USA, 2018 Pixel, Granite City Art & Design District, Granite City, IL, USA
2018
· Visual Basic, Current Space, Baltimore, MD, USA with Chris Cox and Harrison Moenich
· Resonant Flesh, Space Heater Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA, with Justin Majetich
· Remedios the Beauty, Granite City Art & Design District, Granite City, IL, USA
· La Croix™Digital Oasis, Chromatic Festival, Montreal, Canada
· Midwest Markdowns, Wave Pool Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, USA
2017
· Void 0, Skylab Gallery, Columbus, OH, USA with Clare Gatto,
· Life 2.0, isthisit? Pavilion, The Wrong Biennale
· out_of_body, isthisit? online gallery
· Sketch Organs, DEMO Project, Springfield, IL, USA
2016
· Back to the Future Part II , M.I.N.T. Collective, Columbus, OH, USA with Chris Cox and Harrison Moenich
· New(er) Age, Studio 14, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA
2015
· Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA
· Performative Materials, Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA
2014
· ImageOHIO 14, Shot Tower Gallery, Columbus, OH, USA juror Aspen Mays
Awards
2019
· Foundwork Artist Prize Finalist
2018
· Greater Columbus Arts Council Resource Grant
2016
· Peter MacKendrick Endowment Fund for Visual Artists 2016 Cranbrook Art Museum Committee Acquisition Prize
· Mercedes Benz Emerging Artist Award Nominee
· Warren and Margot Coville Scholarship 2014 Jerome Family Scholarship
2012
· Firestone Photography Award
· Fergus Memorial Scholarship
Publications
2019
· RPG Gothic, New Archive Publishing
2017
· ‘Crystal Magic Weapon and Other Essays’, Open Space Baltimore, MD
· Is This It? Magazine, Issue 3
· ‘Void 0’, Refigural Magazine, Issue 12
· Forever?/Unfurnished/Sketch Organs
· ‘Baby Peach Crushes’, Refigural Magazine, Issues 1-10 Abridged
· ‘Keep Calm And Your Text’,Refigural Magazine, Issue 8, “Wayshrines”
2015
· ‘An Evening with Baby Peach’, Refigural Magazine, Issue 5
‘Baby Peach Crushes’, Refigural Magazine, Issue 3,
2014
‘Forms’, Refigural Magazine, Issue 1