I had high hopes for this artist after reading in the course notes that Karla "uses domestic and pharmaceutical materials in her work" as I have an interest in assemblage. I hadn't expected that some pieces would be made from "paper, powder, cellophane and toothpaste" [1].
I give you, 'Opportunities For Girls':
If I'm honest I'm struggling to say something polite about this, let alone constructive. If we were to restrict our appraisal to Karla's use of colour then I would concede that there does seem to be a strong element of pink in this sculpture, which would stereotypically alude to femininity.
I think I'll stop there. Not to my taste. I simply don't understand anything about it at all.
I decided to give George a look since the course text said he uses "Humbrol enamel paints" which I am familiar with, from my time as a child making Airfix kits.
It was initially a challenge to separate George Shaw from the author George Bernard Shaw. I got there, and this was literally the first image I found:
The more I look at this picture the more I see camouflage colours from a second world war aeroplane. If anything, though, I feel the use of enamel paints on a canvas makes the painting a bit dull. Maybe that was intentional, to recreate the woodland aesthetics?
I think I understand the concept of a clash of cultures, but I don't understand, looking at other images in the exhibition, why he would choose to pair an image of Jesus Christ with the title of a soft-porn magazine picture. In my opinion that's not big, or clever. It's just unnecessarily offensive.
References:
[1] Schwabsky, B. (2009) Karla Black Available at:
https://www.artforum.com/events/karla-black-187776/
(Accessed: 10 February 2026)
[2] Wiggins, C. (2016) George Shaw: My Back to Nature Available at:
https://artuk.org/discover/stories/george-shaw-my-back-to-nature
(Accessed: 10 February 2026)
© Kevin Warren - fibrocreativity (fc)