In search of the “American Dream,“ Karlic's family immigrated to Detroit in 1987 when her father fled communist Poland to work in the auto industry. From this uprooted childhood, her practice concentrates on the human effects of social upheaval: Close to Home (2005) focuses on Ukraine’s post-Soviet conditions; The Dee (2007) depicts Detroit’s de-industrialization; Dear Diary (2008) explores one online community searching for companionship; What Color is the Sacred (2009), sponsored by Tim Wride and the French Consulate, examines Western views of French Polynesia and the “re-birth” of Tahitian culture. Aberdeen Sierra Leone (2011) portrays a group of progressive post-war adolescent males in West Africa.
The most recent book series, ELEMENTARZ (2011), tracks the reach of the U.S. auto industry (stretching from Detroit to California to Eastern Europe, where her father implemented new industrial plants) while depicting the efforts at communication between engineer father and artist daughter. Both images and excerpts of conversation allude to fractured ideologies of individual worth, religion and family, while signs of car culture mixed with evidence of economic blight recur. A mood of longing pervades ELEMENTARZ, coupled with absentminded dreaming, characteristic of both Eastern European immigrants and African Americans of the Great Migration.
Karlic is a recent recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship which will enable her to continue to further investigate diasporic existence surrounding industry. She holds a MFA in Photography and Media from the California Institute of Arts and a BFA in Photography from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.