Artist Selects: Silke Otto-Knapp, The Living We Are Doing, Always Among Others

Artist Selects: Silke Otto-Knapp, The Living We Are Doing, Always Among Others is the first in a series of exchanges between artists and LACMA’s Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies. Silke Otto-Knapp (1970–2022), a German-born, Los Angeles–based artist, is best known for her monochromatic work in watercolor. For this project, on view in LACMA’s Modern Art Galleries, she selected works that appealed to her among the collection’s thousands of prints, drawings, books, and periodicals. She borrowed the exhibition’s subtitle, “The Living We Are Doing, Always Among Others,” from her friend and colleague, the art historian Darby English. Though Otto-Knapp passed away before she could see her curatorial project realized, this installation is a testament to her engagement with art and ideas. One could view the assembled works of art as a meditation on community and experiences of pandemic isolation, or as an exploration of the question: how do we live together apart, as a gathering of individuals?