A.I.R. Gallery NYC
155 Plymouth St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
August 6–September 4, 2022

Music/film/photography/performance.
RSVP: Friday, September 2 from 6-8 PM ET
A.I.R. Gallery
155 Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201

As part of exhibition Sleepless in Warsaw, A.I.R. Gallery presents a 30-min. concert/durational sound environment Metamorphosis/Dafne (2021) by New York based Polish artist Monika Weiss followed by a talk with Izabella Gustowska about Women’s Art one of the first feminist exhibitions in Poland and her film Relative Features of Resemblance, (1979-1980). The exhibition Sleepless in Warsaw is on view at A.I.R. Gallery NYC until September 4, 2022.

Artists: Karolina Breguła, Oksana Briukhovetska (Ukrainian artist), Iwona Demko, Zuzanna Janin, Justyna Górowska, Katarzyna Górna,  Izabella Gustowska,  Elka Krajewska, Diana Lelonek, Zbignew Libera, Natalia LL, Monika Mamzeta, Jolanta Marcolla, Jan Możdżyński, Dorota Nieznalska, Anna Orbaczewska, Ewa Partum, Monika Weiss, Alicja Wahl, Ewa Zarzycka, Liliana Zeic, Paweł Żukowski.

Curator: Agnieszka Rayzacher

The project is co-organized by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.

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A.I.R. Gallery presents Sleepless in Warsaw, a group exhibition of Polish and Ukrainian artists, which comes as a fruit of many years of collaboration with the Warsaw-based lokal_30 Gallery and is part of an exchange between the two art venues. Works by artists from the A.I.R. Gallery’s roster will be shown in Warsaw between June and September 2022.

Sleepless in Warsaw showcases artists representing Polish and Ukrainian a number of generations: from the doyennes, such as Natalia LL and Jolanta Marcolla; to mid-career artists, such as Zuzanna Janin and Monika Mamzeta; to Jan Możdżyński and Liliana Zeic from the young generation. Sleep disorders are said to be one of the most frequent afflictions suffered during the current pandemic, which has already lasted for more than two years. The Internet is ripe with advice, friends recommend tried and tested methods to each other, and each minute a new social media post asks: “what do you do when you cannot sleep?” The current situation in Ukraine has added an even more real dimension to our uncertainty and sense of threat. Sleeplessness results from anxiety, fear for the future, not only our own, but also the future of humankind. Metaphorically speaking, sleeplessness can also be seen as a state of hypersensitivity, inability to come to terms with the existing order, or rather the disorder of the world.

On another level, the exhibition seeks to summarize more than fifty years of avant-garde art focusing on women’s issues in Poland. This thread relates to the eponymous sleeplessness and attempts to alleviate its causes: avant-garde art is seen as a broadly understood social movement whose goal is not only to achieve equal rights for all living beings, but also mutual care, including care for the future of the planet and worthy life of its inhabitants.

The exhibition is divided into sections: first featuring new works created during the last dozen or so years, second with pieces originating from the period of the Polish democratic and capitalist transition, and third showcasing works from the 1970s and early 1980s.

Seminars with exhibition participants are planned through the duration of the exhibition.

This project is co-organized with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and made possible by the generous support of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Capital City of Warsaw, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and Beach64retreat.

Lead image: Diana Lelonek, Forms of Survival, 2020. Video, 8’01’’.