About

ARTIST STATEMENT

KARLA KUYACA

Contact: 505-577-7566

Karla Kuyaca  is a Photographer with a definitively unique eye.
Her perspective is artistically sophisticated and often has a distinct
playfulness.

The daughter of a known California artist, (Charles Surendorf, “Who’s Who in American Art.”)  Karla has had her first “fifteen minutes of Fame” while in her twenties, when living NYC during the early 1960’s.   As innovator of found object jewelry she caught the attention of Andy Warhol, who sent her to the NY Harold Tribune,  Leo Castelli, Ivan Karp, “Probably the best jewelry in America.” Alan Stone, Vogue Magazine and the American Craftmen’s Galley with whom she exhibited and published.

Karla began photo journaling during this period in NYC, with the purchase of a pre-war Leica.  She has been in love with the fresh capture of moments which is inherent in photo Journalism, ever since then. She has switched, by necessity, to the digital image, with a strong intention to explore its artistic possibilities while using no photo manipulation technique at all.

Her first one-man show of photographs was hung at City Lights Bookstore at the invitation of Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1968.                                                                                                      Her most recent solo show was in NYC, at Chinatown Soup, for Chinese New Year 2020. This was part of the series, “Alice In Chinatown.”

A most recently completed series, “Haute Graffiti,”  includes Graffiti from around the Western United States, through the perspective of modern Abstract Expressionism.

Her current, ongoing series, “Alice In Chinatown,” is of intriguing, often reflective, shots into the shop windows of many US Chinatowns, is also truly poetic imagery. This series has been called “ A Mesmerizing, purely fantastic photojournalism”.

Karla was raised in San Francisco, California, and makes her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she has built an adobe home by herself with help from friends from local Pueblos.

Asked what keeps her passion for photography sustained, Karla says “Life is even better when you can return to what fascinates you.   So photograph it.  When you never get tired of looking at a picture…Then you know you have got good art work.”