Delighted to have my work selected to show as part of Photoville Festival’s, The Curated Fridge, special installation, ‘On a Road Trip’ curated by Aline Smithson. The Brooklyn Waterfront will be New York City’s main destination 21-25th Sep with more than 80 curatorial partners including Instagram, The New York Times,TIME Magazine, National Geographic, The Pulitzer Cente, the Magnum Foundation and Getty Images alongside The Curated Fridge. Photoville will be exhibiting work by 400+ visual artists. Produced by United Photo Industries, Photoville Festival is a modular venue built from re-purposed shipping containers.
The Curated Fridge by Yorgos Efthymiadis.
‘On the way to the Enchanted or Gloomy Place?’ © Vanja Karas. These settings are part of Ashdown Forest parts of which were used as the backdrop for A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories… and the subsequent book illustrations by E.H. Shepard.
Vanja Karas, as part of the special edition of The Curated Fridge, Photoville, Brooklyn, New York. Curated by Aline Smithson
Delighted to have my work HM 90, Queen B Vanitas as part of the special English Garden Room installation, ‘In England We Dream of Garden’ room curated by Alice Shirley, as part of 29th Art for Youth annual art event in aid of charity UK Youth, creative director Caitlin Mavroleon. 12-15th September, with VIP Preview Night on Monday the 12th September.
Delighted that my work ‘Queen B Vanitas’ has been selected as one of the finalists for the 26th National Open Art 2016 exhibition. Some amazing venues to look forward to Mercer’s Hall, City of London, Arundel Castle and Pallant House Gallery Chichester.
Little Paper Slipper sculpture installation by Vanja Karas
Little Paper Slipper invited nine exceptional artists – Gavin Turk, Molly Parkin, Vanja Karas, Julia Maddison, John Claridge, Jess De Wahl, Fiona Dealey, Lauren Baker and Marie-Louise Jones – to create specially commissioned little paper shoe artworks to be sold at their charity fundraiser auction at Vout-O-Reenees on 9th June 2016. Really thrilled and honoured to be one of the commissioned artists for this unique charity that ‘Gives a creative voice to women affected by domestic abuse, and makes that voice heard’.
Delighted to be showing my work ‘HM 90 Queen B Vanitas’ in the upcoming exhibition HM90 presented by Art Society Soho and Creative Debuts, in conjunction with Whitechapel Gallery First Thursdays at the Black and White Building in Shoredich. Private View Opening May 5th. Exhibition continues until June 4th. #art #exhibitions #eastlondon #firstthursdays and #firstthurs, #Firstthurs, #ArtSocietySoho, #WhitechapelGallery #electronicsuperhighway … ‘HM 90 Queen B Vanitas’ Artwork © Vanja Karas
STOPJECTIFY, Gallery Different, Curated by Jess de Wahls.
Delighted to have work selected for the upcoming exhibition STOPJECTIFY curated by Jess De Wahls at Gallery Different Soho, London, Private View 8th March 2016
A powerful exhibition, highlighting the damaging effects of objectification, imagining and creating change.
STOPJECTIFY // From the Private View last night. Fab and fun evening! Including works by Vanja Karas, Jess De Wahls, Hugo Von Hugo, Marie-Louise Jones, Mia-Jane Harris, Glenn Fitzy Fitzpatrick, Hugo Von Hugo, Sin and Karina Akopyan….
The Birch Crotch for Stopjectify, artwork by Vanja Karas
This piece explores fungibility as one of the aspects of objectification– fungibility is treating the entity as interchangeable with other objects: “The objectifier treats the object as interchangeable (a) with other objects of the same type, and/or (b) with objects of other types. Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution. That is, the property of essences or goods which are capable of being substituted in place of one another.
Great privilege to have my work exhibited at The Hall of Awa Japanese Handmade Paper in Tokushima, Japan as part of the Awagami Biennal print exhibition 10th Oct – 9 November 2015. Also very happy to receive the news that my work below from the series ‘An Experimental Journey, Undertaken Involuntarily II’ has been acquired by a Japanese collector.
My work ‘Solo for Two’ featuring Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev showing at the upcoming exhibition at the Chelsea Arts Club. Exhibition runs 29th Sep – 25th Oct © Vanja Karas 
Delighted and honoured that one of my site specific sculpture installation ‘Metamorphosis of Arachne by Goddess Atina’ created during the Art Residency in Asilo, Atina has been commissioned as a permanent installation at the Atina Sculpture Park. Also a few other site specific installations which I created and which were exhibited in the beautiful Palazzo Ducale Cantelmo in Atina Italy.
The Embassy Tea Gallery Exhibition November 2015
London Independent Photography
27th Annual Exhibition Catalogue 2015
The Embassy Tea Gallery, London SE1
Three of of my installations will be exhibited at Office Sessions IV during July and August 2015. Opening 28th July. Sculpture installation ‘Who Killed the Goose’ by Vanja Karas ‘Progress, this great heresy of decay.’ Charles Baudelaire.
‘The Garden of Decay’ limited edition archival prints by Vanja Karas. 
Office Sessions 4, Beak Street, Curated by Caitlin Mavroleon
Delighted that my Tokyo Geisha have found a permanent home at the beautiful new premises of Japanese style fashion label KOKORO in Connaught Street, London, W2 In addition several artworks from the collection have been acquired by a US collector and will be travelling to the US soon. Photos from installation in progress, more visuals of the full installation coming soon.
My work ‘Say it with Fire’, as part of ‘Fit the Slit’, another exhibition I am taking part in during the 56th Venice Biennale. This time on Venice Lido, Alberoni Beach.
My sculpture installation ‘Who Killed the Goose’ has been selected for DEN-City1 curated by Rebecca Feiner. DEN-City1 is a unique temporary utopian city of installations part of the London Festival of Architecture. No 2 on Time Out list of things to do this weekend in London. Don’t miss it! Forman’s Fish Island Riviera, across the canal overlooking the London Olympic Stadium. H.Forman & Son, Stour Road, E3 2NT London
Very happy that some of my recently exhibited work at House of Illustration has been sold at a silent auction in aid of the recent Nepalese earthquake. It was a delight not only to be able to donate to such a worthy cause as I feel Nepal close to my heart, but also the charity itself from it’s inception, Kathmandu Contemporary Arts Centre. It was also a great privilege to exhibit my work alongside artists such as Anthony Gormley and Richard Long. The exhibition and fundraising was organised by Kathmandu Contemporary Arts Centre and its founder Celia Washington.
Very happy to have my work exhibited at Hutch Interior a very stylish Notting Hil interior design shop / gallery, curated by Caitlin Mavroleon.
So thrilled that my installation ‘An experimental journey, undertaken involuntarily’ will be showing at this year’s 56th Venice Biennale as part of the international contemporary art exhibition ‘The Fall of the Rebel Angels’, curated by Vanya Balogh. Other mixed media installations include sculpture, print, fine art, photography, performance, projections, video and sound. Don’t miss the opportunity to come and see this outstanding exhibition and party with us in Venice.
Vernissage on 6th, 7th, 8th May 6-10pm
Exhibition runs 9th May – 23rd June 2015
Castello 1610/A, Riva Delle Sette Martiri, Venice 30122
ALL THE WORLDS FUTURES 56th Venice Biennale
‘An experimental journey, undertaken involuntarily’ © Vanja Karas
(Sculpture installation and archival print )
Other exhibiting artists include: Gavin Turk, Franko Black, Darren Coffield, Lorenzo Belenguer, Cedric Christie, Alice Herrick, Ot Lylie, Thomas J Ridley, Martin Sexton, Julia Maddison, Joanna McCormick, Pascal Rousson, Jim Racine, Steve Perfect, Jude Cowan Montague, Glenn Fitzy Fitzpatrick…
‘GOD’, CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION, PUNE, INDIA, Curated by Rekha Sameer
About ‘Encounters with God. The presence or lack thereof…’
by Vanja Karas
Spirituality as a term these days, even amongst some atheists, is used as a way of stepping beyond religious divides, organised religion and its institutions, as a feeling that there must be something else be it ‘God’ or some sort of ‘other’. Instead of sticking to rigid doctrines and conforming to strict expectations and demands of organised religion, spirituality becomes about personal experience of a higher reality, morals or dimension to life allowing one to borrow from different faiths creating and formulating own meanings and interpretations of what ‘God’ or ‘other’ might be. This work explores most recognisable visual system of symbols used by Christianity through the crucifixion of Christ and theories of atonement and reconciliation (as sacrifice, forgiveness and moral example) in search of a higher meaning, alongside the invisible rays of the spiritual ‘other’ whatever it may be…
From the press
The exhibition has been making the waves in both British and Indian press. According to Huffington Post some of London’s best contemporary art was selected for this exhibition in India. In India, the interpretations of the theme ‘GOD’ and the selection of international artists, captured lots of attention and lots of press coverage too. Very flattered that my work was selected as one of the highlights of the exhibition, below.
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