Ivan Karim

Iván Karim (Cairo, Egypt) is a Spanish artist based in Málaga whose work explores the intersection of matter, memory, and perception.

After a career in publishing and audiovisual communication, his artistic language has shifted from visual immediacy to emphasise complex processes, placing the physical and material at the forefront.

His work draws on a sensitivity towards materials—particularly in their states of wear, transformation and decay. In this context, he explores the capacity of objects and surfaces as vessels for experience and emotion.

Through painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography and industrial design, Karim develops a multidisciplinary practice centred on the relationship between colour, form and matter, resulting in pieces that invite a more attentive and profound perception.

Statement

I have always felt that something is missing when I confine myself to a single artistic discipline with clearly defined boundaries. For this reason, the possibilities offered by mixed media feel far more aligned with my nature.

I am drawn to the colours, forms and textures of certain materials — particularly in states of decay and erosion — and I use them to explore the transformation of environment, thought, emotion and action.

“Often, decline is the genesis of what is yet to come. It is shaped by time, yet it carries its own discourse, function and beauty.”

Through my practice, I have developed a process that fluidly fuses disparate materials, positioning each work somewhere between the two-dimensional language of photography and the three-dimensional presence of sculpture.

Within this space, the medium becomes essential, inviting the work not only to be observed but also to be touched and experienced.