Autor: Olszewska

Przeźroczystość / Transparency

Artists: Vanessa Enriquez, Hannah Gieseler, Monika Goetz, Johanna Jaeger, Edith Kollath, Alanna Lawley

30.11.2017 – 03.02.2018

SIC! BWA WROCŁAW

Photos: Alicja Kielan

The tradition of Wrocław’s SIC! BWA Wrocław Gallery is closely linked to glass and ceramics. The history of the venue and its exhibitions has always been connected with the artistic circles of the city, as well as the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and its Faculty of Ceramics and Glass. Glass itself, as an artistic medium, is for SIC!BWA Wrocław Gallery a starting point, both for exhibitions and more complex projects. Here, glass is not only a material but also a medium for raising issues and problems characterizing our modern times, and it is this tradition that inspired Transparency,
an exhibition presenting four artists from Berlin. Transparency is defined as a material’s ability to conduct light, and the properties of glass – conduction, permeability or diffusion – are the main theme of the exhibition. They are, however, approached in a non-literal, indirect way here, becoming a mere starting point for the artists and their individual ways of understanding the subject matter in the context of the SIC! BWA Wrocław Gallery and its history. The exhibition concentrates on the visual perception and reception of dynamic optical processes. The artists use the properties and characteristics of glass, but the process and development of physical phenomena is analyzed by means of various, not necessarily traditional, media and materials. The reflection on the perception of reality which affects us by means of various stimuli begins with the human eye. In their works, the artists show how unreliable and imprecise it is in reception as well as visual interpretation of the world surrounding us. The viewers will often feel a sense of illusion and surprise when visiting the exhibition.
At times the primary image will pass through a number of subsequent filters or layers of artistic interaction.

Another deliberate technique is the use of non-standard materials whose physical properties might at first sight appear to have little to do with transparency. The invited artists all live and work in Berlin, but each of them represents a different approach to art and different creative fields. In their artistic work they often raise diverse subjects and use various media, ranging from photography and drawing to sculpture and site-specific installations. A similarly heterogeneous approach may be seen in their treatment of the exhibition’s main theme: transparency. Works selected for the exhibition are meant to encourage the viewers to discover their own, individual connection between the matter and final perception of a work of art. Apart from the main SIC! BWA Wrocław Gallery, the Transparency exhibition annexes a back room and basement space it leads to. They are perfect places to present works by the sixth artist from Berlin – Edith Kollath. In her artistic practice, she combines the unpredictability of natural phenomena with the programmed mechanics of appliances. The artist is particularly interested in the dynamics and movement of objects. By means of self-made mechanisms, she sets immobile objects in motion. However, the most interesting thing is the final result: the movement, even though planned and defined, seems natural and spontaneous. Kollath’s two installations are complemented by a selection of drawings, in which the artist experiments with the properties of non-painting tools. By means of adhesive tape on black sheets of paper, she manages to achieve the effect of a damaged pane of glass. In the space leading to the basement, the artist will set up a new dynamic installation, making use of movement and permeation of layers. In the underground room, she will be working on light, with lit bulbs whose movement illustrates one of the fundamental laws of physics – conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy.

Each of the artists presents a different attitude to the subject matter and uses different, often contrasting media. However, juxtaposing such varied artistic approaches will turn the SIC! BWA Wrocław Gallery space into a network of cross-references and fields of dialogue, with the works complementing each other.

In the context of the exhibition, the eponymous transparency, a physical property of glass, inspires to reflect on the perception of material reality – tangible objects and fragments of the surrounding world – but also on the way we perceive ourselves and the times we live in. The purity (czystość) in the Polish title of the exhibition is often blurred and lost in the excess of visual stimuli, or deliberately taken away in order to change our perception. And it is precisely thanks to the incompletely “transparent”, if not deformed, vision that we manage to see art from a different, less obvious perspective.

24H BRL/WRO

Artists: Marisa Benjamim, Jenny Brockmann, Krystian Truth Czaplicki, Paweł Czekański, Vanessa von Heydebreck, Thomas Judisch, Fee Kleiß, Monika Konieczna, David Krňanský, Karina Marusińska, Natasza Niedziółka, Janne Räisänen, Łukasz Rusznica, Ina Sangenstedt, Kama Sokolnicka, Marlon Wobst

25- 26.11.2017

private apartment, Wroclaw

Photo: courtesy of Krupa Gallery, Wroclaw

The 24H BRL/WRO was a second event as a part of the 24H Project, which started in October 2017 in Warsaw and is a series of ephemeral art events, which take place in locations unusual for presenting art: empty apartments and building, offices, storages or spaces in a process of transitions. The whole exhibition lasts only during a weekend, exactly 24 hours.

The 24H BRL/WRO took place in a private apartment in a city center of Wroclaw. The leitmotif of the exhibition was an idea of a wunderkammer- cabinet of curiosity. Artists from Berlin and Wrocław, invited to participate in the show, through their work and practise dealt with the subject of the exhibition in various way and through different media.

The exhibition was made in collaboration with Krupa Gallery, Wroclaw.

Szwung

Artists: Martyna Czech, Karolina Jabłońska, Tomasz Kręcicki, Cyryl Polaczek

30.06- 22.07.2017

SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY, Berlin

photo: def_images

However diverse the works by the four young Polish artists presented in the show appear to be, they are united by the element of „szwung”. The works on display are all full of verve and temperament. Moreover, all of the paintings are powerful and aim at creating a visceral response from the beholder. The dynamic compositions are created out of many contradictions. Motives, shapes, and forms are strong and expressive; coming from very different realities, they don’t hold back and confront the beholder directly. These young painters do not cut themselves off from the boredom of daily routine and include it in their works, combining and juggling various themes from everyday life or simply grasping for images and stories related to tales, books, or films – without however simply reproducing these on canvas.
Cyryl Polaczek often works with a monochrome background in which he engraves and imprints simple lines and shapes. In his work Zapach [Smell], the artist works with very reduced ways of expression but succeeds, in imbuing the painting with a an element of surrealism: In a thick layer of green paint, Polaczek draws a thin line which forms a nose. Another shape is imprinted and looks like cigarette smoke going directly into a nostril. Or maybe it is not smoke but a mouth in a profile and this smell comes fromsomewhere else, outside of the composition?

Aside from the visual, another aspect brings works by these four Polish artists together. All their works are informed by irony or indeed sarcasm. Their often surrealistic quality makes the works even more disturbing, unsettling, or even annoying.
Certainly, in the case of Tomasz Kręcicki’s paintings, black humour and absurdity play an important role. The narration in the paintings oscillates somewhere between everyday banality and horror. Furthermore, the composition is built up with contrasting elements that do not work together. A good example is the painting Palce [Fingers]. A tiny pencil is held between two huge fingers trying to write something on a small piece of paper. It is as if Gulliver were using Liliput’s writing tools to make some notes.

Karolina Jabłońska and Martyna Czech are not at all ashamed of dealing with very personal and intimate subjects on their canvases. The works by these two female painters are often brutal and bold. There is nothing reticent about their work.
At first glimpse, the paintings by Karolina Jabłońska might seem cute or twee because of their simple, naive forms and eye-catching colours. A closer inspection reveals that they are anything but nice. They are filled with violence and cruel harassment. The artist tells brutal und unpleasant stories involving blood, violence, and abuse. In Plucie [Spitting], the artist depicts the lower halves of two faces of people who seem to argue, or even simply spit at one another. This act is extreme and rude, and for sure there will be no apology afterwards.

Despite her young age, Martyna Czech works with difficult subjects such as violence, suffering, and unhealthy interpersonal relationships. In her paintings, she manages to find a balance between vulgarity and artistic boldness. Her works are difficult to digest, but at the same time they have this strange inherent power which forces us to look at them. The artist is ruthless in expressing her opinion about the world she needs to deal with. In her painting Gówniaki (Shitheads) she mocks a selfie-culture by depicting a youngster posing for a selfie: here, the individual’s eyes have been covered by a black bar and a revolting piece of shit on a stick is held towards the mouth.

The concept of the exhibition at SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY is based on creating different kinds of tension between the particular works, linking and comparing them with each other. It also directs the viewer’s attention to unusual subjects, such as irony, boldness, directness, and surrealism which appear in the works. Subjects that are not only characteristic for this exhibition but refer to language or ways of communication and expression used by a young generation.

Space as a place

09.07- 18.09.2016
Haus am Lützowplatz

artists: Piotr Blajerski. Olaf Brzeski, Krystian Truth Czaplicki, Łukasz Rusznica, Kama Sokolnicka

photo: Marta Madej

The exhibition „Space as a Place“ presents five young artists from Wroclaw. Although the artists work with different media and represent various artistic milieus, they meet together through the subject of the exhibition. Space, a main theme for the show, is seen by the artists from various perspectives. They show how space relates to universal ideals but also touches on individual and personal experiences.

In the exhibition at Studiogalerie, space can be seen as a space, which is defined by walls, floors, ceilings and certain objects belonging into it. This space, secured and easy to describe, is a place we live and work, and in which we exist and circulate. Works by Krystian Truth Czaplicki take familiar, commonplace objects from their everyday surrounding and changes them into art objects. In the process, they lose their useful value but attract more attention by being rediscovered in a space in which they did not originally belong.

Space can also be created by the abstract, from something which is very difficult to follow, as we see in an installation by Olaf Brzeski. Using a metal wire, the artist traces the flight path of a fly as it flies about. The flight of this small but annoying creature gains a solid form, which becomes even more annoying. An illogical shape hangs in the gallery space, disturbing and dynamic, like a dark cloud of our own thoughts.

In the exhibition, a physical place evolves into abstract space, going beyond a material room and becoming a psychic sphere, reaching our thoughts, imagination and dreams. The works on display by Kama Sokolnicka are drawn from several different series. In one, the artist deals with sleep disorders, lending these form through a black tapestry made out of wool. In another work, the artist translates the process of dreaming into the physical form of collages.

As in a dream in Sokolnicka’s collage elements, forms and fragments from different sources and realities together build a puzzle which can be read on many levels. The artist’s dreams are combined with memories from her childhood and the gardening business of her parents. Several of her works show the motif of a cheerful garden and greenhouses, along with a piece of rusty grate, forgotten and then found in her parents’ house.

A space shifting between two realities is created in a video by Piotr Blajerski. The artist places a narration in two realities: the existing world and the inner world of thoughts. Together, these create a dream-like story, where the behaviours of the people appear absurd and irrational.

The in-between space where the psychic and physical unite, is occupied through photographs by Łukasz Rusznica. In a nocturne-like series, the artist tells a story of his home. It is a home made up of contradictions. While it is a place where his parents live, and supposedly close, emotionally, it is also unfamiliar and strange. The artist never had a chance to live in the house. Given this situation, how could he define this space? What does it mean to him and how does he find himself within it?

Paulina Olszewska

The exhibition was prepared in a context of this year of celebration of Wroclaw as a European Capital of Culture and an exchange between two cities: Berlin and Wroclaw.