About Klara Kristalova

Klara Kristalova is a sculptor and ceramist. She studied at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Kristalova constructs a strange, yet familiar world, inhabited by creatures who are peculiar, alone, silent, and perhaps lost. As if they have just escaped a cruel story and are waiting for a passer-by to show them the way. 

As a girl, Kristalova spent many hours walking through the woods around her home in Sweden. The family had moved there when Klara was one years old. During the walks, her dog kept her company. Later, forest creatures, especially owls, would play a prominent role in her ceramics. But also, girls with porcelain skin and Pre-Raphaelite hair, their hair looks tangled, as if they were diving in murky water. Kristalova’s work speaks of a desire to hold on to girlhood as well as a nascent curiosity about the dark paths of womanhood. 

Kristalova’s figures are made of glazed ceramics and evoke rawness, vulnerability, and humanity. Based on stories and traditional myths, she tries to convey basic human emotions such as fear, love, sadness, and guilt, which emerge from her work as memories from our own childhood. Although the landscape is not directly depicted, it is an essential part of her mental and physical universe. 

In early 2021, the exhibition Human After All in the Princessehof museum in Leeuwarden featured a large installation of Kristalova’s ceramic works. Previously she also had solo exhibitions in Sweden, Denmark, and the United States. She has participated in group exhibitions in China, Turkey, Finland, and the United States. Her work is included in numerous international public and private collections around the world. At ARTZUID 2021, ‘What holds me back, Carries me further’, a bronze sculpture of a girl who seems to be walking on her roots, was exhibited.