Karl Bielik

I make visceral process driven oil paintings where the surface evolves out of chance encounters between marks and colour, the paintings are often heavily layered and reveal the history and doubt of the decision making. 

I work on thirty or so paintings at a time which range in scale from intimate to large. Drawings, diagrams or photographs may inform the work in its formative stages, but essentially my work emerges from the physical process of painting. 

Loose oily wounds and thick emulsions offset light glazes and dribbles, I paint, wipe out, paint over, turn the canvasses around, print, blot, mask, pour paint, scrape and scratch. I shift from one piece to another and don’t focus on completion, just nudging a painting from one position to another. 

The studio is the place where practically everything happens and the paintings are given a long incubation time to evolve and develop a sense of completeness. In contrast to my sometimes emotive imagery, banal solitary words form my titles, tempering and balancing the character of my work.

Biography
Karl Bielik lives and works in London. His paintings have been in numerous shows at home and abroad, including The John Moores Painting Prize, The RA Summer Show, WAC Art Contemporary, The BEEP Painting Prize, The Marmite Prize and The London Open. He is a member of Contemporary British Painting and is the Founder and Director of Terrace Gallery in London. Bielik also writes and performs in Lark who are signed to Standard Lamp Records.