Curated by Lilly Wei

Opening: Wednesday, September 6, 6–9 PM 

On View: Thursday, September 9 to Friday, October 8, 2021 

Gallery Hours: Mon. to Fri. 10 AM–5 PM; Sat. Oct. 2 and Sun. Oct. 3, 12–5 PM

Venue: The Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 E 65th Street, New York, NY 10065  

Proof of vaccination is required to enter

Publication: Exhibition Catalog

Polish Cultural Institute New York in partnership with The Kosciuszko Foundation is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Joanna Borkowska and Sandi Slone. Of different generations, as well as cultural and educational backgrounds, they employ the common language of poured paint, though to radically different ends – underscoring the enduring vitality of painting.

In her curatorial essay, Lilly Wei writes:

“Both artists are on a journey, like the explorers they are, each seeking to translate the ineffable into the material and then back again, each in their own way. These expansive, numinous paintings are the results of their ongoing search, like messages in a bottle, tossed into the ebb and flow of the universe and retrieved from it.”

Sandi Slone (b. Boston, Massachusetts) is a New York–based abstract artist who has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, among other academic appointments. Slone has exhibited widely with 40 solo shows internationally and her work has been acquired by numerous museums, art institutions, and private collections, including Museum of Contemporary Art MACBA, Barcelona; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; and the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC. She is a founding board member of Art Omi International and The Fields Sculpture Park in Ghent, New York. Among other honors, she is the recipient of a Ford Foundation fellowship.

Joanna Borkowska (b. Koszalin, Poland) is a Warsaw- and New York–based abstract painter. She holds a doctorate in political science from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and taught there until 2007. She had her debut exhibition at the National Museum in Szczecin in 2009 and has exhibited in Poland and internationally since then. Her work is held in numerous institutional and private collections. Borkowska has been an artist in residence at Matadero Madrid, Art Omi, and Residency Unlimited. 

Lilly Wei (b. Chengdu, China) is a New York–based independent curator, art critic, writer, and journalist whose area of interest is global contemporary art with an emphasis on emerging art and artists. Wei’s writings have appeared in dozens of publications worldwide and she has curated exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Founded in 1925, the Kosciuszko Foundation promotes closer ties between Poland and the United States through educational, scientific and cultural exchanges. It awards up to $1 million annually in fellowships and grants to graduate students, scholars, scientists, professionals, and artists, and promotes Polish culture in America.

This exhibition was made possible by the generous support of The Kosciuszko Foundation in New York and the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

Lead image: Joanna Borkowska FPYNY 2021. Oil and pigments on canvas 60 x 48 in 152.4 x 121.9 cm. Jesse Winter/TEN10 Studios.