Karin Sander

German artist Karin Sander (b. 1957) is known around the world and has for many years been connected to the Icelandic art scene. In 1994 the first exhibition of her work was held in Iceland, where she exhibited Wallpiece in the exhibition space Second Floor. Areas of the exhibition space were selected and polished with increasingly fine sandpaper. These areas became shiny, polished wall works that lightly reflected the exhibition space itself and its audience.

Karin Sanders work is often built upon the active participation of the viewer, strong conceptual content, playfulness and plain tactics that the artist works with. Coincidences and time are variables that often define her art, e.g. Mailed paintings, where a narrow white canvas on a frame is sent, exposed, in the mail between exhibition spaces. Stamps, redirections, stickers, dust, spots and dirt begin to mark on the canvas, which is then hung on a wall in the gallery space.

Karin Sander (b. 1957 in Bensberg, Germany) lives and works in Berlin and Zurich. Recent solo shows include the Architecture Biennale (with Philip Ursprung, 2023); the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany (2021); Base/Progetti per l‘arte, Florence, Italy (2020); Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (2019); Kunstmuseum Wintherthur, Switzerland (2018); The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2018); GfZK, Leipzig, Germany (2017); and Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany (2017).

In addition to her teaching at ETH Zurich, where she spent 15 years building up the Chair of Architecture and Art at the Department of Architecture, and was responsible for the artistic training of students, Karin Sander's works are featured in exhibitions worldwide. Her works are in private collections and public galleries such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York and San Francisco, USA), the Metropolitan Museum (New York, USA), Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (Germany), the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea (Santiago di Compostela, Spain), Kunstmuseum und Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (Germany), the National Museum of Art in Osaka (Japan), Kunstmuseum St Gallen (CH), and Kunst Museum Winterthur, (CH).