60 Over 60: Karla Funderburk
- artandcakela
- Jun 12
- 7 min read
Karla Funderburk Los Angeles, CA Age 64
In collaboration with Robyn Richardson
I appreciate you talking with me to look back at your art and career for 60 over 60. As a woman of wisdom, what’s your hot take on the vibe right now in both the US and world at large?
• Well, I think people are having a hard time feeling overwhelmed and floating in the unknown. The Kabbalah says to have certainty in your spirit and purpose. I’m most likely to grow when things become a bit uncomfortable. We are in major discomfort right now and I’m ready for us to grow, which I think is happening as we find our voices and speak up.
So how long have you been an artist? How long have you had Matter Studio?
• During HS in Germany, I knew that clay was my passion, my first love. At 15 I took myself seriously as an artist. I had a great ceramic teacher, (Paul) Platis, who first taught me hand-building. Soon I asked him, “when can we do the wheel?” He said, “if you want to learn the wheel you need to make one.” Mother Jones had an article on how to build a kick-wheel, so I got permission to make a little studio in the basement of our apartment, built the wheel and started selling my work at fairs on the military base.
• Next, I asked him, “Why aren’t there any stools? His response, “If you want to sit, then make yourself a stool.” So, I made my first stool in his class. I started building things I needed- a table, a desk, another passion for creating with wood was taking shape.
• Matter has always been in the name of every business I’ve owned since 1985 and it’s evolved, because I think everything we do, you do, everything matters.
• In 1991 I was out of grad school, building furniture and opened a gallery in Venice on Abbott Kinney, it gave me a lot of street cred. I was 31 and couldn’t hold on to it financially, but it was a great run. It was just called Matter.
• After that I got married and had a daughter. My partner and I were together 23 years, which served as a bit of a shift from the gallery space, but was completely wonderful and provided growth and happiness in so many ways. So after my divorce, I opened Matter Studio Gallery, because I had separate wood shop, clay shop, and this space marries all three of my loves.
Why does a focus on tangible work and physical space matter in a time when AI and Virtual Reality are consuming culture and subsuming the conversations around our very existence?
• Matter was always my focus because matter can never be created nor destroyed, it’s always in a state of transformation, nothing ever dies, it just mutates, so to me everything matters and does matter.
• The beauty of the gallery is firstly holding space but also allowing possibility. I am honored to witness that with every show, as a person can walk into a gallery and become transformed. I don’t think it happens with AI or when you look at a piece of art online. Physical space holds a vibration, it is energy, it is physical. It impacts and engages us on a tangible, kinetic level. You can watch a video of yoga, but unless you’re doing yoga, there’s no impact.
• For example, I recently showed work by (Michael) Chukes, he is a black artist focused on black women, their power and elegance, and their roles in community and society. He makes these beautiful busts—all inspired by his wife. We had a show with multiple busts, but I want to describe these three: First a 60” tall woman, sans legs, but hands are all over her body, her hands become the dreadlocks in her hair, touching her thighs. Second, a pregnant woman, painted black with a white face and target on her belly. And third, just a head with an elongated neck and purple hands coming up from the side as if holding her in a comforting space and the fingers become dreadlocks.
• A few days after the opening, I saw a woman outside peering through the gallery windows, so I invited her in. I think anyone who stops is looking for a reason to come closer, and they deserve my attention. She pointed to the first bust with the hands all over the body and she says, “that’s me that’s me.” She’s wearing scrubs, but I’m confused if she meant she was the model, so I ask, “what do you mean by that?” She replied, “I’m not always doing the right thing because, well, I’m a prostitute, but I’m trying to get back into school to be a nurse, but his woman is being touched with love, and I was never touched with love. Oh, and this is me too, with the target on the belly, because the state took away all of my babies… but then this one with the purple hands is holding, and guiding, it tells me- I got you girl, keep going.”
Let’s talk about art in society- what role do artists and creators play in this age of emergent AI, VR?
• Cameras didn’t stop portraiture or landscape paintings, and AI isn’t a replacement for art, it’s an enhancement. It’s another tool that informs and expands our language. Even cell phones expanded our capacity to see new perspectives and experience media we would never otherwise encounter. New technology makes the world more accessible. If you’re in South Africa, your work can influence the globe and allow us to see (if we’re willing) our connections. That’s what we need in society right now, we are at the precipice of a greater understanding of universal human needs, basic human rights, like food, safety, and shelter.
How is your role in preserving and promoting a broad spectrum of voices and experiences critical at a time when narratives are being actively quelled - how is this achieving Matter’s mission?
• There are LA artists doing amazing work yet haven’t been recognized—I’m talking about integral parts of LA art history and are nearly invisible, sometimes even unknown within their own communities. I am compelled to keep these stories alive through representing artists, activists of the civil rights movement, holocaust survivors, so many voices obscured yet obviously important.
• That is my intention and purpose at Matter—to show art that both evokes unique experiences and sparks an emotional recognition of our deeper connections. Artistic singularity still always points to our universal oneness.
Looking back at your trajectory, how has your work developed and evolved?
• I’ve always leaned on and explored those themes of interconnectedness. My non-profit is about holding space and accentuating interconnectivity too.
• Our biggest misunderstanding is that we are not alone, even though we think we are. My work has always embraced this and continues to explore those patterns. In Kabbalah they call it the Tikkun. There is no disconnect. What impacts you, impacts me. My breath impacts the trees; the tree impacts me.
What keeps you excited and creating?
• While my work represents interconnectedness, it is also about building physical connection and evoking emotion through organic structure. It reminds people of what they might find in the ocean, sea anemone, molecular diagrams, and the method is very labor intensive in a constructing way.
What advice would you give to younger artists or even those just starting out?
• Stay curious and keep exploring. I feel like so many artists sort of have this gap between where they create when they’re younger and then pick back up later in life which impacts their perspectives.
Speaking of this, does age matter in art? How do you think it informs perspective?
• I run into children that are wiser than people of many years on Earth. I think that’s important—our lessons can come from anywhere at any time and aren’t driven just by age.
• A lot of people I have shown might be 60 and older, but there are just as many who are younger, in their 20’s. Time is something I don’t subscribe to. The work has to move me. You can make amazing art at sixteen or sixty.
• This summer I’m showing a young 21-year-old trans artist who went to school with my daughter, and I taught him ceramics. He called to show me he’s shifted mediums into photography—his work is quite striking so knew I wanted to show it.
• In July I’m showing Meagan Cignoli who is a sculptor. Instinctually, I immediately loved her work—it was figurative, organic, beautiful, and imperfect. Her abstract forms are quite orb like. And I love the sensibility in the rawness of her material, so it’s not dressed up, but has a minimalism that is Earth-based. In its rawness there’s also such a polished feel.
What can we look forward to from you next? From your gallery?
• We started out talking about uncertainty, so actually, I’m reminded of a quote from a children’s book about The Trail of Tears I read when I was nineteen on a road trip to Niagara: the only safety you’ll ever find will be within yourself, for safety lies in knowing what to do, and doing the right thing. For me, that means I’ll continue to say yes, continue to connect, and continue showing and creating work that allows us to come closer to ourselves, to our purpose, to our healing, so that we can do this for others. There is a notion that deep down, our souls know what we “need to do” and our job is to listen and do it. My soul is telling me to keep saying yes to what moves me, and you should too.
