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Karina Sharif doesn't merely say that she wants to create room for artists like herself; instead, she advocates for "[massive] clearings" for Black women, femmes and nonbinary individuals through her works. The Brooklyn-based multimedia artist attempts to shift perspectives of world-building and reclaiming space and identity, as witnessed in her recently concluded design exhibition, Elsewhere at the Lyle Gallery in New York, which displayed her works as a 'restorative experience' between January 23 - March 2, 2025. Here, Sharif's lamp designs evolve into newer contemporary narratives, where each form appends a new life to the work where they "can live multiple lives, always evolving, growing and budding," she states in an exclusive conversation with STIR.
While Sharif's artistic practice began with paper as a medium and material, her more recent interventions have expanded to include ceramics and steel as central mediums, memorialising the beauty and resilience of the diaspora. The sculpture artist employs layered metaphors to explore and build a sense of fictive art centring on themes of rest and community. Across the gallery's exhibition space, one observes the artist reflect on Black ancestral histories through organic forms, structural motifs and layered textures that reverberate across present-day portrayals of design traditions, and draw links to the past through materiality and technique. Sharif's foray into lighting design, wearable adornments and throne-inspired furniture designs is cemented by her two decades of experience across design and fashion, sewing material and ritual together.
Originally from Boston, the artist went to the Pratt Institute before pivoting to sculpture in 2019 to create a language of restorative visibility which forms the conceptual roots and network of her art and design practice.
Sculptural paperworks such as Totem (2024) and Oracle (2024) reinforce motifs of Black identity and culture, evinced in their petal-like forms and structural manifestations, which, like the "delicate coils of Black hair—often called the 'kitchen'—reclaim what was once stigmatised", as stated across the press release. These forms, evoke the tightly curled strands of hair at the nape of the neck. Historically stigmatised as 'unruly', the artist tries to reimagine vulnerability into a "symbol of beauty and pride".
Her dynamic compositions of ceramic designs evince a primal tension between belonging, camaraderie and community care, as well as the spaces—or their absence—that inscribe and challenge this sense of belonging. Her chair design Seated, a Sacred Body in Earthly Creation (2024), for instance, in its skeletal framework in steel adorned with petal-like protrusions, almost biomorphic, in hues of blue and earthy tones, disrupts geometric conformity. In orchestrating spatial interruptions through an interplay of positive and negative spaces, across Myrtle (2024) and Cradled by a Memory (2024), Sharif’s product designs express the challenges of belonging, of inclusion and erasure.
In attempting to voice this language of restitution and identity across her compositions, the ceramicist beckons an inquiry into the continued structures of racial and gendered discrimination in modern life. Elsewhere echoes a soft defiance–while today's contemporary realm remains enveloped in biases and prejudice–art doesn't need to be.
STIR speaks to the multidisciplinary paper artist about her latest solo exhibition, her lighting interventions and the immersive forms of self-care and hopes they establish and illuminate. Below is an edited excerpt from the interview:
Asmita Singh: Paper has been a central medium in your work, symbolising the beauty and resilience of the diaspora. We are interested in knowing how you approach this material for your works which reflect the experiences of Black women, femmes and nonbinary individuals as 'divine beings'.
Karina Sharif: I approach fabrication with a particular care and softness. It is important that when working with the material, I explore its ability to preserve history, tell stories and challenge the commodification of the material by highlighting it as precious. I approach it [...] to shine a light on the invisible yet essential labours of Black women and femmes and to both, underscore and put into practice, the care and reverence Black femmes and non-binary individuals deserve.
Asmita: How do you approach the transition in materiality, from paper to ceramic and steel in your larger creative practice encompassing sculptures, lighting, throne-inspired furniture and wearable adornments?
Karina: I treat these transitions like draping. I have a background in sewing and fashion design. I started sewing as a child and learned to drape in college. What I always loved about draping was that it gave me a chance to learn what the piece may become. Each piece of fabric informs what I may do with the next. Nothing was set in stone and anything was possible. I find the experience is similar when navigating the mediums I work with today, only I always put paper in the forefront, requiring that all other materials act [in] supporting roles.
It's an interesting experience when working with stoneware and welding as a piece may seem complete as a ceramic work or welded chair alone, yet once I incorporate paper, steel or stoneware to assist me in supporting the paper, what may have seemed complete takes on a new form. I like that a lot about it. When adorning folks I envision the act as a return to [the] source. The paper protects and hugs [the] deity from which it originally emerged.
Asmita: Exhibitions, such as A Dream Embodied (2024) and Elsewhere (2025), aim to transform gallery spaces into sanctuaries that engage multiple senses. Could you discuss your process for conceptualising and constructing these immersive environments which explore world-building through art, especially with regard to works such as A Warm Embrace, Obsidian Incarnate and Seated, a Sacred Body in Earthly Creation?
Karina: A Warm Embrace, Obsidian Incarnate (2024) was inspired by my mother, my great aunt and a performance piece I opened up to the public in 2023 that explored Black Femmehood and its relation to the natural ore residing in volcanic sites throughout the continent. I used black sand in this performance and reimagined it forming into the beautiful sway of my auntie's hips or my mother's bosom for A Warm Embrace, Obsidian Incarnate. It was important that I feel small while working on the piece, the way I did as a child when in their powerful presence. [This sculptural art piece] creates a world just from the way it sprouts out of the ground in such a grand way—like a tree that shades you from the searing sun and provides a place to rest when tired.
Seated, a Sacred Body in Earthly Creation immerses you into its world simply by offering you a resting place unlike any [other]. You must ask yourself how you will comply with its request. I like that it takes charge in that way while encouraging collaboration with its viewers. Outside of these works, I may start a concept with a song, a scent or an individual muse. I let whatever sparks the vision lead me and then I ask myself, what else would I see, smell [or] taste while in this world and what would I need to stay there? I am always dreaming of the worlds I may like to meet and commune with others from my constituency [while] asking myself what we would need to feel most safe in these spaces.
Asmita: Were there any specific qualities of paper that you found particularly conducive in creating your work, Self Portrait?
Karina: My favourite fictional character, Anyanwu from Wild Seed, the first book in the Patternist Series (1976-84) by Octavia E. Butler, reminds me of paper often. Anyanwu possesses many super abilities and [can] shapeshift into any living [species] she can imagine; even her internal organs may change. No matter [what] form she takes, Anyanwu is always there. Paper is the same. Its ability to exist in numerous forms is fascinating. I collaborated with these inherent characteristics to craft Self Portrait.
Asmita: How would you describe your creative ethos? What is NEXT for you?
Karina: My creative ethos is rooted in putting rest, restitution and community at the centre of everything I do. I'm excited to include a special piece in Gathered, an exhibition centred around the essence of home by Lyle Gallery and Erria in March.
I'm also looking forward to navigating some larger light pieces, working with a select few muses on building community through time and adornment and exploring a new approach to seated works by continually placing collective at the centre of my craft.
What do you think?