Karin Sander, Mailed Painting 36

Karin Sander
Mailed Painting 36
2006
Stretched canvas in standard sizes, white universal primer
8 x 10-1/2 inches (20.32 x 26.67 cm)

Provenance
Esther Schipper
Private Collection, NewYork

About the Artwork

Karin Sander’s ‘Mailed Paintings’ are a series of white, off-the-shelf canvases that the artist sent by post between international locations: Berlin, Cologne, Japan, Iceland and Finland, amongst others. The deliberate absence of any protective wrapping for their shipment allowed each of the canvases to acquire a unique appearance when globe-trotting. Along the journey each of the canvases was numbered, marked, stamped, labelled and even damaged in a different way characterizing it with an exclusive individual set of marks. Sander’s conceptual and political approach in the ‘Mailed Paintings’ series raises questions regarding how an artwork can suffer violent actions by exploring different ways in which these canvases are altered once the artist has lost physical control over them.

About the Artist

Karin Sander (b. 1957, Bensberg, Germany) studied art and art history at the Kunstakademie Stuttgart and at the Independent Study/ Studio Program (ISP), Whitney Museum, New York. She currently lives and works in Berlin and Zurich. Selected solo exhibitions include Museumsbesucher 1:8, Lehmbruckmuseum, Duisburg (2013); Zeigen. Eine Audiotour durch Baden-Württemberg von Karin Sander, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (2012); Kernbohrungen, NBK, Berlin (2011); Gebrauchsbilder und Andere, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen; (2010); Labor, K20 Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf (2010); Zeigen. Eine Audio-Tour durch Berlin, Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin (2009).

Selected group exhibitions include The Distance of a Day: Connections and Disconnections in Contemporary Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2016); Human Scale, National Gallery of Canada - Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, Ottawa (2016); Waywords of Seeing, Le Plateau, FRAC Ile de France, Paris (2014); When Now is Minimal, Museion, Bolzano (2014); Datascape. What You See is Not What You Get,Laboral, Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón (2014); Lens-Based Sculpture. Die Veränderung der Skulptur durch die Fotografie/ The Transformation of Sculpture through Photography, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2014); White. Photography, Art, Design, Fashion, Film, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam (2013); Auf Zeit: Wandbilder–Bildwände, Kunsthalle Bielefeld in cooperation with Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2013); A Simple Plan, Canzani Center Gallery, Ohio (2013); From Trash to Treasure, Kunsthalle zu Kiel (2012); 1980–NOW, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Contemplating the Void. Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum's Rotunda, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010).