Karla Black’s work has been resolutely abstract, founded in an implicit faith in the liberatory potential of a direct perception of the materiality of things: their texture, hue, quantity, relations, and so on. We often speak of 'raw material', and artists’ intentions usually involve 'cooking' their materials in order to transform them; but Black often seems determined to use her materials in such a way as to preserve their raw quiddity even as she orchestrates them with such subtlety.