Artists: Wojciech Bąkowski, Natalia Karczewska, Tomasz Kowalski, Piotr Łakomy, Isabel Nuño de Buen
Exhibition title: Distant Voices
Venue: Stereo, Warsaw, Poland
Date: November 27, 2021 – January 29, 2022
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Stereo
The point of departure for this exhibition is a selection of works which are diverse in their material composition. A wall-mounted sculpture by Isabel Nu ño de Buen combines a papier mache structure with drawings and ceramics and handmade cords. Piotr Łakomy’s “Over the Town” is a painting on canvas stitched with a sheet of aluminum honeycomb, including an ostrich egg and a series of c-prints depicting bird’s nests, and Natalia Karczewska’s window-like diptych consists of layers of drawings and found objects preserved in a glass-like surface of resin.
These works not only mix media, but also carry the traces of process and the atmosphere of the studio. They are clouded in a similar way that a voice heard from a distance becomes distorted by the noises of the environment.
Drawing-based gouaches by Tomasz Kowalski and an animated film by Wojciech Bąkowski are the counterpoint to the dense, multilayered pieces described above. Kowalski’s works feature a lightness and sketch-like swiftness in their visual identity. Bąkowski presents an early animated movie which was made 15 years ago, hand drawn directly on film tape. By the gesture of reaching back into the past, the “distance” – eponymous for the exhibition – is broadened by the aspect of time and its passing. The soundtrack of the film is a song without words performed by the artist whose hummed melody overtakes the space and sounds like it is coming from behind the gallery walls.
Distant Voices, 2021, exhibition view, Stereo, Warsaw
Distant Voices, 2021, exhibition view, Stereo, Warsaw
Distant Voices, 2021, exhibition view, Stereo, Warsaw
Distant Voices, 2021, exhibition view, Stereo, Warsaw
Isabel Nuño de Buen, Codex 20 (algae microcosm), 2021
Natalia Karczewska, A Slack Door Handle II, 2021; Thinking by the Wind, 2021
Piotr Łakomy, Over the Town, 2018-20; Tomasz Kowalski, Numbers and Empty Eggs, 2021
Wojciech Bąkowski, Bark, You Mongrel, Rise Hell, My Pearl, 2006; Tomasz Kowalski, Pejzaż z płaszczyznami, 2021
Tomasz Kowalski, Pejzaż z płaszczyznami, 2021, paper, gouache, pencil 61,5 x 43,5 cm
Isabel Nuño de Buen, Codex 20 (algae microcosm), 2021, ceramic, papier mache, wire, yarn, handmade cords, paper, muslin, hand dyed fabric, graphite, watercolor, 84 x 52 cm
Piotr Łakomy, Over the Town, 2018-20, aluminum honeycomb, canvas, jute, oil paint, ostrich egg, c-prints, oak frame, 116,5 x 186,5 cm
Tomasz Kowalski, Numbers and Empty Eggs, 2021, paper, gouache, ink, 43,5 x 61,5 cm
Natalia Karczewska, A Slack Door Handle II, 2021, mixed media, 88 x 55 cm (left); Thinking by the Wind, 2021, mixed media, 88 x 55 cm (right
Wojciech Bąkowski, Bark, You Mongrel, Rise Hell, My Pearl, 2006, animated film, 3’53’’
Wojciech Bąkowski, Bark, You Mongrel, Rise Hell, My Pearl, 2006, animated film, 3’53’’