KARL BIELIK

Karl Beilik is a multi award winning abstract painter, working in oils on canvas, linen, panels and paper. Bielik’s works are painterly expressions of the artist’s experiences, both physical and emotional, consequence of journeys, set in paint, the process being the driving force, and expectations suspended.
Beilik’s source materials can be very diverse, but always derived from the artist’s immediate environment – occasionally diagrams from medical books in the studio, photographs taken in the local bars, an iron gate, rust stained walls, washing lines – only function as a starting point. Film, literature and music play a huge part in the artist’s life and inevitably inform his work as well. However, essentially his work emerge through the very physical process of painting – constantly adding, painting over, scraping the paint off and starting the process once again.
Working on multiple paintings at the same time, and leaving some of them untouched for weeks and even months, offers an incubation time for the artist to contemplate where he wants the work to go, and gives the paintings themselves room to develop meaning to be here in the world. The resulting paintings are bold yet with sensitivity; celebrations of form and colour.
In contrast to the artist’s often emotive imagery, banal solitary words form his titles, temper and balance the melancholy character of his work.
Karl Bielik lives and works in London.
His paintings have been in numerous shows at home and abroad, including The 2016 John Moores Painting Prize, The Royal Academy Summer Show, The Contemporary British Painting Prize and The London Open.

Selected Exhibitions

2018 Wilderness Projects, Studio 90, London with Jai Llewellyn.
2018 A Road Not Taken, The Marylebone Crypt, London.
2018 Nothing but Good, Park, Tilburg, Netherlands.
2018 Mesnil-Eglise, Belgium. Solo show curated by Francoise Bastin.
2018 La Liberte Comme…, Perwez, Belgium. Curated by Chloe Coomans & Fred Michiels.
2018 Testing 1,2,1,2. Unit 3, London. Curated by John Bunker. 
2018 Salon 10, The Old Lock up Gallery, Derbyshire. Curated by Mandy Payne and Rachael Pinks
2018 Centre of Tamines & Auvelais, Belgium. Curated by Dennis Guerra & Fred Michiels.
2018 Migration and Empathy, Bursa Museum, Turkey. Curated by Reyhani Akan.
2017 Testcard P, The Marylebone Crypt, London.
2017 Contemporary Masters from Britain, China touring the following venues…
2017 Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Tianjin, Yantai Art Museum, Yantai

2017 Artall Gallery and The Jiangsu Arts Museum, Nanjing.

2017 Pigmental, The Rochester Gallery, Kent. Solo show curated by Matt Bray.
2017 Art Gallery NaKashirke, Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia. Curated by Andrey Volkov.

2017 La Liberte Comme Embleme d’Echec, Tamines, Belgium. Curated by Fred Michiels.

2017 A Reporter’s Notebook, Tin Cafe, London. Solo show of 59 small works on paper.

2017 Secret Postcard Show, The Old Lock Up, Cromford, Derbyshire.
2017 Bring Something Pink, St Chamas, France. Curated by Yifat Gat.

2017 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. Curated by Nectarios Stamatopolous.

2017 Steal the Show, Glasgow Open House Festival, Glasgow. Curated by Jessica Wilson.

2017 Footfall Art, Walthamstow Window Gallery, London. Curated by Hannah Luxton.

2017 Testing 1<2<1<2. Unit 3, London. Curated by John Bunker.
2017 Studio 1.1, London. 3 person show with Stephen Buckeridge and Lorraine Robbins.
2017 Sluice Art Fair Fundraiser, London.
2016 The Contemporary British Painting Prize 2016.
2016 The Riverside Gallery, London and Huddersfield Art Gallery.
2016 Osman’s Xmas Bazaar, Studio 1.1, London.
2016 The John Moores Painting Prize 2016, The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
2016 Paper Cuts, Transition, London. Curated by Kristian Day.
2016 The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London.
2016 Article 25 Charity Auction, RIBA, London.
2016 B&W, Transmitter, Brooklyn, New York.
2016 Osten Biennial of Drawing, Skopje, Macedonia.
2016 Polyphony, The Wright Gallery, Northport, Michigan.
2016 Summer Salon, Lubomirov/Angus-Hughes, London.
2016 We are the Dead, Kirk Hopper Fine Art, Dallas, USA.
2016 Abstract Strategies, Boecker Contemporary, Heidelberg, Germany.
2016 Kunstlermesse Art Fair 2016, Dresden, Germany. Showing with Pluspace Project.

2015 Contemporary British Drawing, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Xi’an Province, China.
2015 Osman’s Xmas Bazaar, Studio 1.1, London.
2015 The Seed of it’s Opposite, Kelvin College, Glasgow touring to Glenrothes, Scotland.         Curated by Jai Llewellyn.
2015 The Black & White Project, Look and Listen at The Sluice Art Fair, London.Curated by Yifat Gat.
2015 Wanderer, Angelika Studios, High Wycombe. Curated by Matthew Macaulay.
2015 From England with Love, Boecker Contemporary, Heidelberg, Germany. Curated By Sabine Tress.
2015 The JHB Archive, Birmingham Open Media, Birmingham. Curated by Jo Gane.
2015 Pulp Painting, Studio Apothiki, Paphos, Cyprus. Curated by Valerie Brennan.
2015 The London Open 2015, The Whitechapel Gallery, London.
2015 Abstract Strategies, Toured Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Essen and Rotterdam. Curated by Jan Holtoff.

2015 Carta, Dalla Rosa Gallery, London.
2015 Wright Gallery, Northport, Michigan, USA. Curated by Sabine Tress.
2015 Family Ties, 500X Gallery, Dallas, USA. Curated by Bonny Leibowitz and Julie Torres.
2015 South of No North, East of No West. CC Projects, Alabama, USA. Curated by Brian Edmonds.
2015 Traces of the Gesture, Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, USA. Curated by Susan Lizotte.

2014 Noir/Blanc, Look and Listen, Saint Chamas, France. Curated by Yifat Gat.
2014 Restatemant, Galerie Schutte, Essen, Germany. Curated by Nina Brauhauser.
2014 The Wright Gallery, Northport, Michigan, USA. Curated by Pier Wright.
2014 White Hours, Studio Apothiki, Paphos, Cyprus. Curated by Valerie Brennan.
2014 Off The Wall, The 9th Terrace Open, London.
2014 One Plus One is One, Curating Contemporary, Alabama, USA.
2014 Infinity : One, Dalla Rosa Gallery, London.
2014 A Dream within a Dream, Bankley Gallery, Manchester. Curated by Matthew Macaulay.
2014 Eight Painters, Kathryn Markel Gallery, New York, USA. Curated by Paul Behnke.
2014 Art Converters, Studio 1.1, London.

2013 First Come, First Served, The Lion and Lamb, London.
2013 Sluice Art Fair, Tanner Street, London.
2013 Exchange Project, APT Gallery, London. Curated by Claire Undy.
2013 Form/Function, Piccadilly Place, Manchester. Curated by Lisa Denyer and Matthew Macaulay.
2013 Now you see it, now you don’t, The 8th Terrace Open, London.
2013 Other Objects, The Lion and Lamb, London. Curated by Caterina Lewis and Gwennan Thomas.
2013 What I Like About You North, Imogen Holloway Gallery, New York. Curated by Julie Torres.
2013 What I Like About You, Parallel Art Space, New York. Curated by Julie Torres.
2013 Meditations, The Meter Room, Coventry. Curated by Lisa Denyer and Matthew Macaulay.

2012 Plane Space, The East Crypt, Worcester Cathedral, Curated by Dan Roach.
2012 The Art of Falling Apart, the 7th Terrace Open, London

2011 The Velryba Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2011 Done Paint Done, The Drawers Gallery, London.
2011 The Creekside Open, APT Gallery, London. Selected by Phyllida Barlow.
2011 A Heap of broken Images, where the sun beats, The 6th Terrace Open, London.
2011 The Marmite Painting Prize III, touring Coventry, Tameside and The Nunnery, London.

2010 The Barbican Arts Group Trust Open, London.
2010 Icons, St. Botolphs Church, London.
2010 BHVU Winter Open, London.
2010 Vintage at Goodwood, A Customized mannequin for an Artists charity auction.
2010 Hang then Decay… It says something to me about my life, The 5th Terrace Open, London.
2010 The Anthea Turner Prize, Compton Studios, London. Curated by Heidi Locher.
2010 The Filthy Songs of Their Fathers, Scapegoat Society, London. Curated by Boyle&Shaw.

2009 The Art Factory, Budapest, Hungary.
2009 And it’s Time, Time, Time and it’s Time…The 4th Terrace Open, London.
2009 Surface, The Imperial College, London.

2008 The Marmite Painting Prize I, Studio 1.1, London.
2008 Dynamite Fighter featuring Lark, The Royal Academy, London. Curated by Boyle&Shaw.
2008 So Much Wasted Wine… So Many Dead Flowers, The 3rd Terrace Open, London.

2007 Oh Deborah! CA Projects, London.
2007 Departure Lounge, Terrace, London.
2007 Doodles, Noodles and Snippets, Vital Arts, Whitechapel Hospital, London.

2006 Time Flies, The 2nd Terrace Open, London.
2006 New Pain, Vertigo Gallery, London.

2005 Happiness Blues, Terrace, London.
2005 Painting, Y.A. Gallery, Berlin, Germany.

2004 Lexmark European Art Prize, Eyestorm, London.
2004 London Arts East, 291 Gallery, London.
2004 Somewhere, The 1st Terrace Open, London.

2002 36X36, Mafuji Gallery, London.
2002 Art 2002, Stricoff Gallery, New York, USA.

2001 36X36, Mafuji Gallery, London.

1999 Bratri Capku Gallery, Prague.
1999 Do not go gently, Jednorozec Gallery, Prague.