Karl Haendel

Karl Haendel is a young Los Angeles-based artist who is as well versed in theory as he is in recent art history. His drawings are based on advertisements, newspaper clippings, family photographs, money and even other drawings. These realistic drawings were created with the aid of an overhead projector. Haendel’s drawings are large, beautifully and skillfully executed works on paper made with pencil. His subject matter ranges from a penny, to a new Cadillac SUV, to fragments from other works of art, as well as scribbles and even his own thumb print. Karl Haendel, "$56,055, 2005," pencil on paper, 93 x 130". This work is about juxtapositions in which disparate elements play off one another. The multiple references that Haendel imposes makes the work both original as well as infuriatingly academic.