Her sculptures and drawings have a deeply personal formal language, but they are also shaped by the myths and fairy tales we all carry with us and share. The figures have childlike features while possessing a dark sense of humor. A recurring figure is the young woman, situated in the borderland between childhood and adulthood. Klara Kristalova embraces a cliché of “the Nordic”—with deep forests and a fantastical, mysterious plant and animal life—yet she fills this cliché with new, contemporary stories.

In her exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall, Klara Kristalova presents a mix of large-scale and small sculptures, several made specifically for the exhibition. She also shows drawings, sketches, and her first animated work. A new catalogue is being published in conjunction with the exhibition.

If there is a central motif in Klara Kristalova’s charged, melancholic, and darkly humorous sculptures, it is certainly the human head. A body part (…) where thoughts are born, dreams are dreamed, and secrets are kept and protected.

Tom Morton on Klara Kristalova, from the exhibition catalogue.

Top image: Klara Kristalova, Elephant, Glazed stoneware, 2012. Photo: Olle Kirchmeier / Bonniers Konsthall