Elin describes her artwork as a bodge. It is a hurried process of bunging bits together (wood, cardboard, paint, salt dough, glass, textile, rope) with screws, tape, nails, cement and glue until it stands up. And sometimes it still falls. So she mends it, tries again, with more screws, more tape, more nails, more cement and more glue. She lets necessity, felt through the sensibilities of her hands, guide her process until her sculptures balance and feel good. Then she stops. 
As she works she manifests the way she feels the world, how she understand things to be. She puts it into her works. She remembers how wonderful things were. Yet how harrowing they were. How messy, fragile and painful they were. How scared and alone she felt. How badly she wants life, everything, to make sense. 
Elin's sculptures are like purple bruises. They happen fast. Indicative of violence. Outward signs of lingering pains.
In 2023 Elin handed in her practise-based PhD at the University of Arts London. In 2022, after a residency there Elin became a an Arts Associate of the British School at Athens, she has also been in residence at the British School at Rome, 2019. Elin has published her writing in the Handbook of Research on the Relationship Between Autobiographical Memory and Photography (2023) and  the Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance (2022). She has recently exhibited her works at Demoni Danzanti in Sabina Italy, Gallery Dodo in Brighton and the Triangle Space in London. 
In 2016 Elin set up Jakob Kroon Gallery, a nomadic gallery space showing art in unique environments.
She writes A Leaning Tree, a substack on PhDs and motherhood.
A Dog’s Dinner
My darling, welcome
to this mercurial place
our home and atelier,
the rubble and screws – it is hardly ideal.

Learn
not to apologise
or ask them
permission.

Always
tell them to do one
when they ask you to smile.
Show them your face and resistance.

Just listen to me,
when I say –
no, not the stairs, nor that chair and
leave the dog’s dinner alone.
EXHIBITIONS 
2023 Unfolding Narratives 3, PhD work in Progress, LCC, London, UK       
2022 A Cloth Over a Birdcage, Gallery Dodo, Brighton, UK          
2022 Salon in Sabina, Sabina, Italy            
2022 Unfolding Narratives 2, PhD work in Progress, LCC, London, UK      
2021 20 Years of Artists at the BSA, 12 Star Gallery, London, UK  
2020 Collemacchia Beacon, The Museum of Loss and Renewal, Italy        
2020 Unfolding Narratives, PhD work in Progress, LCC, London, UK      
2019 Picturing the Invisible, Triangle Space, Chelsea College of Art, London, UK 
2019 Portico, British School at Rome, Rome, Italy          
2018 Made For Life, Regency Town House, Hove, UK         
2017 The Best Mess, HUTT Collective, Nottingham, UK   
2016 Unwriting, Colonnade House, Worthing, UK          
2016 Life is On, Jakob Kroon Galleri, Stockholm, Sweden - Duo show with J. Fitzpatrick 
2015 Whatever You Say I am, That’s What I am, Unit 8, Brighton, UK  
2014 72Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (curated by Photobookshow)             
2014 Familiar Constructs, Gallery 40, Brighton, UK - Solo show (curated by Sunil Shah) 
2014 Unit 8, Platform Gallery, Brighton, UK          
2013 /World, Grand Parade, Brighton, UK          
2013 Festival Diep, Dieppe, France (curated by Alice Schÿler Mallet)        
2012 Fine Art Media, The Rag Factory, London, UK         
2012 In Search of Place, George Rodger Galley, Maidstone, UK    
2012 Along the Lines of..., Lucy Bell Gallery, St Leonards on Sea, UK        

PRESENTATIONS AND TALKS 
2024 (Upcoming) Trauma-informed Pedagogies in Art, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 
2022 ‘A Cloth Over a Birdcage’, Photo Fringe, Brighton, UK 
2022 ‘Concluding Lecture’, British School at Athens, Online          
2021 ‘The Art of the Bodge, British School at Athens, Online        
2019 ‘The Jam in Bellfield’ (reading), Chelsea College of Art, London, UK       
2015 Miniclick Panel Discussion, Brighton, UK          
2014 ‘Familiar Constructs’ (round table discussion), Gallery 40, Brighton, UK      
2014 ‘Familiar Contructs’, Phoenix Centre, Brighton, UK (organiser)        
2013 Miniclick, Pecha Kucha, Brighton, UK          

RESIDENCIES 
2021 British School at Athens, Athens, Greece           
2020 Taking Time - Museum of Loss and Renewal, Collemachia, Italy         
2019 British School at Rome, Rome, Italy           
2018 Writing Retreat, St- Malo, France          
2014 Forest Residency, Stour Valley Arts, Kings Wood, UK   
​​​​
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS  

PUBLISHED WRITING AND INTERVIEWS 
Karlsson, E. and Palma, A. (2022) A Cloth over a Birdcage. Bookend. 
Karlsson, E. (2021) Recipes Under Confinement. Ma Bibliotheque. 
Murphy, C. (2021) Unfolding Narratives 2: Elin Karlsson 
Karlsson, E. (2018) The Jam in Bellfield - Self-published, edition of 20 
Karlsson, E. (2014) Elina Brotherus: Even if it is me, it can also be you, Introdex Magazine 

EDUCATION
2016-2023 PhD (practise-based), University of the Arts London, UK
The Art of the Bodge: Understanding bodging as a methodology when
working with themes of sexual violence in the medium of sculpture and writing. 
Supervisory team: Paul Tebbs, Dr Mark Ingham, and Patricia Ellis 
Examiners: Professor Helen Hester and Jennet Thomas 
2012-2013 MA Photography, University of Brighton, UK
2009-2012 BA Photography and Media Arts, University of the Creative Arts, Maidstone, UK