born 1976, New York, USA | lives and works Los Angeles, USA

Karl Haendel is an artist who makes drawings, installations and billboards. He tries to make honest works about contradiction and hypocrisy. He received a BA from Brown University in 1998 and a MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2003. His works are in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and The Guggenheim Museum, New York. In 2006 he was the subject of a solo exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Why do you create art?
I was good at some things as a kid, not so good at others. But there were only two things at which I really excelled, playing soccer and making art. Soon I started to play soccer at a higher level, but then there came a time when I just could no longer compete; I was just outmatched. That never happened with art, so I keep going with it. It really was a process of elimination, and maybe if I was bigger, faster, or more skilled, I’d be a soccer player.

What do contemporary people need art for?
People do not need art. It has no use value, no purpose. If it suddenly seeks to exist, nobody will die or experience physical harm. It exists completely outside of human need, it is at the level of culture, that which makes life valuable or worth living. We need food and shelter so that we might laugh, love, pray or experience art.