{"id":8983,"date":"2023-08-18T18:17:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T16:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=8983"},"modified":"2023-11-17T17:04:32","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T16:04:32","slug":"kus-libera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/","title":{"rendered":"Kus + Libera"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exhibition Kus + Libera
On view: September 7-October 21, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Events<\/strong>
Tuesday, September 5 at 5pm ET: Pre-Opening Concert by Shahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny Duo (details below)
Thursday, September 7 at 6-8:30pm ET: Exhibition Opening Reception<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Erben Gallery<\/strong>
526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Polish Cultural Institute New York presents Kus + Libera<\/em>, featuring the work of Agata Kus,<\/strong> in her US debut, and Zbigniew Libera<\/strong>. The show, opened on September 7, is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York and co-curated by its Curator of Visual Arts and Design, Izabela Gola. On view are recent photo works by critically lauded and prominently exhibited conceptualist Zbigniew<\/strong> <\/strong>Libera<\/strong> <\/strong>(b. 1959) as well as paintings by Agata Kus<\/strong> (b. 1987), who is part of the current surge of mainly young, female, figurative painters, and whose work has garnered widespread attention. Libera began working in the early 1980’s, behind the \u201ciron curtain\u201d in a Poland seeking to free itself from Soviet rule, whereas the art of Kus\u2019s generation operates within and confronts a market-oriented, now capitalist society. The juxtaposition of their work shows how two artists \u2013 30 years apart in age and brought up under opposite political systems \u2013 respond to their contemporary situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realizing how and why each artist triggers and recontextualizes collective memories is key to understanding their work. Whereas Kus depicts her contemporary female protagonists in decayed interiors, recalling the neoclassical architecture of 19th century Poland in a time of heightened patriotism in the face of over a century long partitions \u2013 Libera often builds his photos from images sourced from popular visual culture and mass media or what he calls, \u201cthe piles of images in our heads\u201d. In Libera\u2019s work, there is a friction between what is implied and what might be seen in his often emotionally exalted, staged scenarios, which have been the subject of many exhibitions over the years. Each scene of estranged, obscured marginalized worlds trigger imagination to reveal the camouflaged stories. The invented characters are caught in action in often seemingly historical moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Poetess Maria de Cyrano<\/em> (2020), is reminiscent of the 1960’s Civil Rights-era photograph of African American girl Ruby Bridges being escorted by police so that she can attend elementary school. While this connection draws us in, the work confounds on multiple levels. It presents a mob of elegantly, upwardly dressed men in drag, who \u2013 in a reversal of the conventional social order \u2013 assault and attack the central figure, a middle-aged woman, stoically marching and protectively clutching Julius Shulman\u2019s A Constructed View,<\/em> which documents Los Angeles\u2019 mid-century architecture. Could the modest poetess be the reason for this aggression or perhaps the book, an ode to \u201cmodernity\u201d? And as the figure of a guard intrudes from the right of the picture, is he deliberately trying to keep us out? What are we not supposed to see? Immersed in grotesque and satire, the portrayed subjects hint at seemingly familiar lived experience. Unlike the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which together form a cohesive image, Libera lets a multitude of possible narrative interpretations collide without offering resolution. Althoughsolely constructed, his pictures comment on reality or following Libera\u2019s words, \u201ceven though not true, they carry the truth\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, though rendered in oil on canvas as well as engaging a long tradition of symbolism and mysticism, Kus juxtaposes images to equally open-ended, enigmatic ends. The viewer is immediately pulled by visual richness of seductive figurative scenes, sometimes sourced from the artist\u2019s life, arrived at with a skillful painterly style of an academic painter. Unlike in Libera, young women are staged static, in a post-action or a post- event, detached from their deteriorating, almost postapocalyptic surroundingsof a passed era (fin de si\u00e8cle). The vignettes of every-day activities are transformed into strange magical or ritualistic acts, imbued with melancholy or decadence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young woman in her Come and See<\/em> (2023) sits atop the skeleton of a horse, rendered after a prop used by Tadeusz Kantor in one of his experimental theatre pieces, Let the Artists Die<\/em> (1985). The morbidity of the scene is softened with cutesy details, such as hair clips in the horse\u2019s mane or a tail-wagging, little dog. While Kus\u2019s theatrical tableaux evoke a grand past, their dilapidated interiors point toward its collapse. This creates a stark contrast with Kus\u2019 young women, who \u2013 though presented as self-possessed and materially well off, considering their up-to-date fashions \u2013 are portrayed as unmoored, disengaged, and mainly gazing at their iPhones. A new peculiar kind of mythology emerges from the visual allegories blending Kus\u2019 personal and collective memories: a reflection on contemporary state of conscious, cultural phenomena, identity crisis, social degeneracy, coming of age or post adolescent repressed fears and anxieties, or perhaps longing for an attempted but unfulfilled revolutionary act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both bodies of work, there is a dialogue between past and present. Whereas Libera sees a possibility for a change – Kus presents us with a contemporary condition in stasis. But her inclusion of religious symbols, removed as they might seem from official iconography \u2013 such as the likeness of St. Mary, her face bisected by the canvas edge or her tears of blood replaced by rhinestones \u2013 hint at the possibility of redemption amidst a crisis of meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Agata Kus, Necklace II<\/em><\/em>, 2023. Oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Agata Kus, Come And See<\/em>, 2023. Oil and luminescent acrylic on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Agata Kus, The Lady-in-waiting<\/em><\/em><\/em>, 2023. Oil and luminescent acrylic on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Agata Kus, Cold Mother<\/em>, 2023. Oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Agata Kus<\/strong><\/a> was born in 1987. She lives and works in Krakow, Poland. She graduated from Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She completed her diploma at the studio of Professor Leszek Misiak in 2012. She received her PhD in 2018. She works in painting, drawing, video and ceramic. She is a recipient of many awards and scholarships, including the Grand Prize at the International Media Art Biennale WRO 2015. In 2017, she was nominated for \u201cThe Views\u201d  Deutsche Bank and Zach\u0119ta National Gallery of Art Award. In 2011 and 2018, she was shortlisted for the Vordemberge-Gildeward Award. In 2021, she won the first place in the ranking of young artists \u201eKompas M\u0142odej Sztuki\u201d, published in the \u201eRzeczpospolita\u201d newspaper. She cooperated with galleries and institutions in Poland, Austria and Paris. Her paintings are in the collection of the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, National Museum in Gda\u0144sk, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Krak\u00f3w, M Bank Collection and in many private collections in Poland and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kus primarily paints people, consistently with the current triumphant return to this classic type of figurativeness. Her trademark use of multiple narratives within a single composition allows a multi-faceted reading of the painting as individual themes or a synthesis of them all, resulting in new meanings. The elusiveness and ambiguity of Kus\u2019s paintings offers many possibilities for interpreting and following their complex narratives. The artist uses a wide range of formal procedures such as pictorial collage, pseudo-cutouts, paste-ins, obliterations and destructions to suggest a juxtaposition of many differently textured and executed compositions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Zbigniew Libera, Son Land<\/em><\/em>, 2021. Photograph.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Zbigniew Libera, Poetess Maria de Cyrano<\/em><\/em>, 2020. Photograph.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Zbigniew Libera<\/strong> <\/a>(born 7 July 1959) is a Polish artist, born in Pabianice, Poland. Libera’s artworks are considered to fall under the styles of pop art and critical art, and have been frequently used his works to comment on political and social issues. Considered one of the most renowned Polish artists to date, Libera considers himself the „Father of Critical Art”. Libera is best known for his controversial 1996 artwork named LEGO Concentration Camp, depicting a Nazi concentration camp made out of Lego bricks. The artwork attracted much controversy, including The Lego Group threatening legal action. Libera is also famous for his photography and videography such as Intimate Rites (1984), How to Train Little Girls (1987) and Pozytywy (English: Positives). \u2018’Pozytywy\u2019’ is a series featuring Libera’s photographs that capture humans living in war-torn cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibit Kus + Libera is initiated by the Polish Cultural Institute New York, co-curated and produced in close partnership with Thomas Erben Gallery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Shahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Shahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny Duo<\/strong>
Pre-Opening Concert
Tuesday, September 5 at 5pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Erben Gallery<\/strong>
526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Shahzad Ismaily<\/strong> (How Shahzad Ismaily Became Musicians\u2019 Favorite Musician – The New York Times<\/strong><\/a>) is a Brooklyn-based musician, composer and engineer. Born to Pakistani immigrant parents, he grew up in a wholly bicultural household. Exploring improvisation, tonal shifts and rhythmic movement, Ismaily worked with a number of avante-garde musicians and composers including Laurie Anderson, Anthony Coleman, Milford Graves, Eyvind Kang, Butch Morris and Marc Ribot. Over the last thirty years he has played electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, synthesizers and all manner of sound-makers procured in life\u2019s travels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Micha\u0142 Dymny<\/strong><\/a> is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, composer and vocalist. His main instruments are piano and electric guitar, on which he has developed an individual style based on sonoristic techniques and preparations of the instrument. Dymny is an active member of the Polish improvised music scene. He was part of the Improvising Artists collective, as well as in projects  Entropy, Process – Laboratory of Intuition, and Krakow Improvisers Orchestra. In 2008-2009 Dymny was organizing Open Sessions – regular meetings for improvising musicians. In 2013 he co-founded the Institute of Intuition \u2013 a project dedicated to the development of indeterministic forms of artistic creation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Conceptually minded, Thomas Erben Gallery strives to either rediscover or expose work that contributes to contemporary discourse and expands beyond the boundaries of the artists\u2019 chosen media. Thomas Erben began his professional involvement in the art world in 1989 as a private dealer focusing on contemporary American art. In 1993, he began organizing exhibitions in his private space, which led to the opening of Thomas Erben Gallery, located, until 2000, on Broome Street in SoHo. His inaugural exhibition in September of 1996 was an installation by Senga Nengudi. From the outset, the program has been multidisciplinary and internationally oriented, showcasing emerging as well as established artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead image: Agata Kus, Medusa<\/em>, 2023. Oil on tulle, embroidery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exhibition Kus + LiberaOn view: September 7-October 21, 2023 EventsTuesday, September 5 at 5pm ET: Pre-Opening Concert by Shahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny Duo (details below)Thursday, September 7 at 6-8:30pm ET: Exhibition Opening Reception Thomas Erben Gallery526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001 Polish Cultural Institute New York presents Kus + Libera, featuring the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":8990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-arts"],"yoast_head":"\nKus + Libera - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kus + Libera - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Exhibition Kus + LiberaOn view: September 7-October 21, 2023 EventsTuesday, September 5 at 5pm ET: Pre-Opening Concert by Shahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny Duo (details below)Thursday, September 7 at 6-8:30pm ET: Exhibition Opening Reception Thomas Erben Gallery526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001 Polish Cultural Institute New York presents Kus + Libera, featuring the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-18T16:17:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-17T16:04:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"klaudia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"klaudia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/\",\"name\":\"Kus + Libera\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023-300x225.jpeg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-18T16:17:47+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-17T16:04:32+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2023-09-07\",\"endDate\":\"2023-10-21\",\"eventStatus\":\"EventScheduled\",\"eventAttendanceMode\":\"OfflineEventAttendanceMode\",\"location\":{\"@type\":\"place\",\"name\":\"\",\"address\":\"\",\"geo\":{\"@type\":\"GeoCoordinates\",\"latitude\":\"\",\"longitude\":\"\"}},\"description\":\"Exhibition Kus + LiberaOn view: September 7-October 21, 2023\\nEventsTuesday, September 5 at 5pm ET: Pre-Opening Concert by Shahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny Duo (details below)Thursday, September 7 at 6-8:30pm ET: Exhibition Opening Reception\\nThomas Erben Gallery526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001\\nPolish Cultural Institute New York presents Kus + Libera, featuring the work of Agata Kus, in her US debut, and Zbigniew Libera. The show, opened on September 7, is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York and co-curated by its Curator of Visual Arts and Design, Izabela Gola. On view are recent photo works by critically lauded and prominently exhibited conceptualist Zbigniew Libera (b. 1959) as well as paintings by Agata Kus (b. 1987), who is part of the current surge of mainly young, female, figurative painters, and whose work has garnered widespread attention. Libera began working in the early 1980's, behind the \u201ciron curtain\u201d in a Poland seeking to free itself from Soviet rule, whereas the art of Kus\u2019s generation operates within and confronts a market-oriented, now capitalist society. The juxtaposition of their work shows how two artists \u2013 30 years apart in age and brought up under opposite political systems \u2013 respond to their contemporary situation.\\nRealizing how and why each artist triggers and recontextualizes collective memories is key to understanding their work. Whereas Kus depicts her contemporary female protagonists in decayed interiors, recalling the neoclassical architecture of 19th century Poland in a time of heightened patriotism in the face of over a century long partitions \u2013 Libera often builds his photos from images sourced from popular visual culture and mass media or what he calls, \u201cthe piles of images in our heads\u201d. In Libera\u2019s work, there is a friction between what is implied and what might be seen in his often emotionally exalted, staged scenarios, which have been the subject of many exhibitions over the years. Each scene of estranged, obscured marginalized worlds trigger imagination to reveal the camouflaged stories. The invented characters are caught in action in often seemingly historical moment. \\nFor example, Poetess Maria de Cyrano (2020), is reminiscent of the 1960's Civil Rights-era photograph of African American girl Ruby Bridges being escorted by police so that she can attend elementary school. While this connection draws us in, the work confounds on multiple levels. It presents a mob of elegantly, upwardly dressed men in drag, who \u2013 in a reversal of the conventional social order \u2013 assault and attack the central figure, a middle-aged woman, stoically marching and protectively clutching Julius Shulman\u2019s A Constructed View, which documents Los Angeles\u2019 mid-century architecture. Could the modest poetess be the reason for this aggression or perhaps the book, an ode to \u201cmodernity\u201d? And as the figure of a guard intrudes from the right of the picture, is he deliberately trying to keep us out? What are we not supposed to see? Immersed in grotesque and satire, the portrayed subjects hint at seemingly familiar lived experience. Unlike the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which together form a cohesive image, Libera lets a multitude of possible narrative interpretations collide without offering resolution. Althoughsolely constructed, his pictures comment on reality or following Libera\u2019s words, \u201ceven though not true, they carry the truth\u201d. \\nLikewise, though rendered in oil on canvas as well as engaging a long tradition of symbolism and mysticism, Kus juxtaposes images to equally open-ended, enigmatic ends. The viewer is immediately pulled by visual richness of seductive figurative scenes, sometimes sourced from the artist\u2019s life, arrived at with a skillful painterly style of an academic painter. Unlike in Libera, young women are staged static, in a post-action or a post- event, detached from their deteriorating, almost postapocalyptic surroundingsof a passed era (fin de si\u00e8cle). The vignettes of every-day activities are transformed into strange magical or ritualistic acts, imbued with melancholy or decadence.\\nYoung woman in her Come and See (2023) sits atop the skeleton of a horse, rendered after a prop used by Tadeusz Kantor in one of his experimental theatre pieces, Let the Artists Die (1985). The morbidity of the scene is softened with cutesy details, such as hair clips in the horse\u2019s mane or a tail-wagging, little dog. While Kus\u2019s theatrical tableaux evoke a grand past, their dilapidated interiors point toward its collapse. This creates a stark contrast with Kus\u2019 young women, who \u2013 though presented as self-possessed and materially well off, considering their up-to-date fashions \u2013 are portrayed as unmoored, disengaged, and mainly gazing at their iPhones. A new peculiar kind of mythology emerges from the visual allegories blending Kus\u2019 personal and collective memories: a reflection on contemporary state of conscious, cultural phenomena, identity crisis, social degeneracy, coming of age or post adolescent repressed fears and anxieties, or perhaps longing for an attempted but unfulfilled revolutionary act. \\nIn both bodies of work, there is a dialogue between past and present. Whereas Libera sees a possibility for a change - Kus presents us with a contemporary condition in stasis. But her inclusion of religious symbols, removed as they might seem from official iconography \u2013 such as the likeness of St. Mary, her face bisected by the canvas edge or her tears of blood replaced by rhinestones \u2013 hint at the possibility of redemption amidst a crisis of meaning.\\nAgata Kus was born in 1987. She lives and works in Krakow, Poland. She graduated from Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She completed her diploma at the studio of Professor Leszek Misiak in 2012. She received her PhD in 2018. She works in painting, drawing, video and ceramic. She is a recipient of many awards and scholarships, including the Grand Prize at the International Media Art Biennale WRO 2015. In 2017, she was nominated for \u201cThe Views\u201d Deutsche Bank and Zach\u0119ta National Gallery of Art Award. In 2011 and 2018, she was shortlisted for the Vordemberge-Gildeward Award. In 2021, she won the first place in the ranking of young artists \u201eKompas M\u0142odej Sztuki\u201d, published in the \u201eRzeczpospolita\u201d newspaper. She cooperated with galleries and institutions in Poland, Austria and Paris. Her paintings are in the collection of the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, National Museum in Gda\u0144sk, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Krak\u00f3w, M Bank Collection and in many private collections in Poland and abroad.\\nKus primarily paints people, consistently with the current triumphant return to this classic type of figurativeness. Her trademark use of multiple narratives within a single composition allows a multi-faceted reading of the painting as individual themes or a synthesis of them all, resulting in new meanings. The elusiveness and ambiguity of Kus\u2019s paintings offers many possibilities for interpreting and following their complex narratives. The artist uses a wide range of formal procedures such as pictorial collage, pseudo-cutouts, paste-ins, obliterations and destructions to suggest a juxtaposition of many differently textured and executed compositions.\\nZbigniew Libera (born 7 July 1959) is a Polish artist, born in Pabianice, Poland. Libera's artworks are considered to fall under the styles of pop art and critical art, and have been frequently used his works to comment on political and social issues. Considered one of the most renowned Polish artists to date, Libera considers himself the \\\"Father of Critical Art\\\". Libera is best known for his controversial 1996 artwork named LEGO Concentration Camp, depicting a Nazi concentration camp made out of Lego bricks. The artwork attracted much controversy, including The Lego Group threatening legal action. Libera is also famous for his photography and videography such as Intimate Rites (1984), How to Train Little Girls (1987) and Pozytywy (English: Positives). \u2018'Pozytywy\u2019' is a series featuring Libera's photographs that capture humans living in war-torn cities.\\nThe exhibit Kus + Libera is initiated by the Polish Cultural Institute New York, co-curated and produced in close partnership with Thomas Erben Gallery.\\nShahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny DuoPre-Opening ConcertTuesday, September 5 at 5pm\\nThomas Erben Gallery526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001\\nShahzad Ismaily (How Shahzad Ismaily Became Musicians\u2019 Favorite Musician - The New York Times) is a Brooklyn-based musician, composer and engineer. Born to Pakistani immigrant parents, he grew up in a wholly bicultural household. Exploring improvisation, tonal shifts and rhythmic movement, Ismaily worked with a number of avante-garde musicians and composers including Laurie Anderson, Anthony Coleman, Milford Graves, Eyvind Kang, Butch Morris and Marc Ribot. Over the last thirty years he has played electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, synthesizers and all manner of sound-makers procured in life\u2019s travels.\\nMicha\u0142 Dymny is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, composer and vocalist. His main instruments are piano and electric guitar, on which he has developed an individual style based on sonoristic techniques and preparations of the instrument. Dymny is an active member of the Polish improvised music scene. He was part of the Improvising Artists collective, as well as in projects Entropy, Process - Laboratory of Intuition, and Krakow Improvisers Orchestra. In 2008-2009 Dymny was organizing Open Sessions - regular meetings for improvising musicians. In 2013 he co-founded the Institute of Intuition \u2013 a project dedicated to the development of indeterministic forms of artistic creation.\\nConceptually minded, Thomas Erben Gallery strives to either rediscover or expose work that contributes to contemporary discourse and expands beyond the boundaries of the artists\u2019 chosen media. Thomas Erben began his professional involvement in the art world in 1989 as a private dealer focusing on contemporary American art. In 1993, he began organizing exhibitions in his private space, which led to the opening of Thomas Erben Gallery, located, until 2000, on Broome Street in SoHo. His inaugural exhibition in September of 1996 was an installation by Senga Nengudi. From the outset, the program has been multidisciplinary and internationally oriented, showcasing emerging as well as established artists.\\nLead image: Agata Kus, Medusa, 2023. 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Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/","og_locale":"pl_PL","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kus + Libera - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","og_description":"Exhibition Kus + LiberaOn view: September 7-October 21, 2023 EventsTuesday, September 5 at 5pm ET: Pre-Opening Concert by Shahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny Duo (details below)Thursday, September 7 at 6-8:30pm ET: Exhibition Opening Reception Thomas Erben Gallery526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001 Polish Cultural Institute New York presents Kus + Libera, featuring the […]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2023-08-18T16:17:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-17T16:04:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"klaudia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"klaudia","Szacowany czas czytania":"12 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/","name":"Kus + Libera","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023-300x225.jpeg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/08\/Koronka-Kus-2023.jpeg","datePublished":"2023-08-18T16:17:47+02:00","dateModified":"2023-11-17T16:04:32+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/04d40cd80c1729a7f440613bee4073b6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2023\/08\/18\/kus-libera\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2023-09-07","endDate":"2023-10-21","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"Exhibition Kus + LiberaOn view: September 7-October 21, 2023\nEventsTuesday, September 5 at 5pm ET: Pre-Opening Concert by Shahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny Duo (details below)Thursday, September 7 at 6-8:30pm ET: Exhibition Opening Reception\nThomas Erben Gallery526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001\nPolish Cultural Institute New York presents Kus + Libera, featuring the work of Agata Kus, in her US debut, and Zbigniew Libera. The show, opened on September 7, is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York and co-curated by its Curator of Visual Arts and Design, Izabela Gola. On view are recent photo works by critically lauded and prominently exhibited conceptualist Zbigniew Libera (b. 1959) as well as paintings by Agata Kus (b. 1987), who is part of the current surge of mainly young, female, figurative painters, and whose work has garnered widespread attention. Libera began working in the early 1980's, behind the \u201ciron curtain\u201d in a Poland seeking to free itself from Soviet rule, whereas the art of Kus\u2019s generation operates within and confronts a market-oriented, now capitalist society. The juxtaposition of their work shows how two artists \u2013 30 years apart in age and brought up under opposite political systems \u2013 respond to their contemporary situation.\nRealizing how and why each artist triggers and recontextualizes collective memories is key to understanding their work. Whereas Kus depicts her contemporary female protagonists in decayed interiors, recalling the neoclassical architecture of 19th century Poland in a time of heightened patriotism in the face of over a century long partitions \u2013 Libera often builds his photos from images sourced from popular visual culture and mass media or what he calls, \u201cthe piles of images in our heads\u201d. In Libera\u2019s work, there is a friction between what is implied and what might be seen in his often emotionally exalted, staged scenarios, which have been the subject of many exhibitions over the years. Each scene of estranged, obscured marginalized worlds trigger imagination to reveal the camouflaged stories. The invented characters are caught in action in often seemingly historical moment. \nFor example, Poetess Maria de Cyrano (2020), is reminiscent of the 1960's Civil Rights-era photograph of African American girl Ruby Bridges being escorted by police so that she can attend elementary school. While this connection draws us in, the work confounds on multiple levels. It presents a mob of elegantly, upwardly dressed men in drag, who \u2013 in a reversal of the conventional social order \u2013 assault and attack the central figure, a middle-aged woman, stoically marching and protectively clutching Julius Shulman\u2019s A Constructed View, which documents Los Angeles\u2019 mid-century architecture. Could the modest poetess be the reason for this aggression or perhaps the book, an ode to \u201cmodernity\u201d? And as the figure of a guard intrudes from the right of the picture, is he deliberately trying to keep us out? What are we not supposed to see? Immersed in grotesque and satire, the portrayed subjects hint at seemingly familiar lived experience. Unlike the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which together form a cohesive image, Libera lets a multitude of possible narrative interpretations collide without offering resolution. Althoughsolely constructed, his pictures comment on reality or following Libera\u2019s words, \u201ceven though not true, they carry the truth\u201d. \nLikewise, though rendered in oil on canvas as well as engaging a long tradition of symbolism and mysticism, Kus juxtaposes images to equally open-ended, enigmatic ends. The viewer is immediately pulled by visual richness of seductive figurative scenes, sometimes sourced from the artist\u2019s life, arrived at with a skillful painterly style of an academic painter. Unlike in Libera, young women are staged static, in a post-action or a post- event, detached from their deteriorating, almost postapocalyptic surroundingsof a passed era (fin de si\u00e8cle). The vignettes of every-day activities are transformed into strange magical or ritualistic acts, imbued with melancholy or decadence.\nYoung woman in her Come and See (2023) sits atop the skeleton of a horse, rendered after a prop used by Tadeusz Kantor in one of his experimental theatre pieces, Let the Artists Die (1985). The morbidity of the scene is softened with cutesy details, such as hair clips in the horse\u2019s mane or a tail-wagging, little dog. While Kus\u2019s theatrical tableaux evoke a grand past, their dilapidated interiors point toward its collapse. This creates a stark contrast with Kus\u2019 young women, who \u2013 though presented as self-possessed and materially well off, considering their up-to-date fashions \u2013 are portrayed as unmoored, disengaged, and mainly gazing at their iPhones. A new peculiar kind of mythology emerges from the visual allegories blending Kus\u2019 personal and collective memories: a reflection on contemporary state of conscious, cultural phenomena, identity crisis, social degeneracy, coming of age or post adolescent repressed fears and anxieties, or perhaps longing for an attempted but unfulfilled revolutionary act. \nIn both bodies of work, there is a dialogue between past and present. Whereas Libera sees a possibility for a change - Kus presents us with a contemporary condition in stasis. But her inclusion of religious symbols, removed as they might seem from official iconography \u2013 such as the likeness of St. Mary, her face bisected by the canvas edge or her tears of blood replaced by rhinestones \u2013 hint at the possibility of redemption amidst a crisis of meaning.\nAgata Kus was born in 1987. She lives and works in Krakow, Poland. She graduated from Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She completed her diploma at the studio of Professor Leszek Misiak in 2012. She received her PhD in 2018. She works in painting, drawing, video and ceramic. She is a recipient of many awards and scholarships, including the Grand Prize at the International Media Art Biennale WRO 2015. In 2017, she was nominated for \u201cThe Views\u201d Deutsche Bank and Zach\u0119ta National Gallery of Art Award. In 2011 and 2018, she was shortlisted for the Vordemberge-Gildeward Award. In 2021, she won the first place in the ranking of young artists \u201eKompas M\u0142odej Sztuki\u201d, published in the \u201eRzeczpospolita\u201d newspaper. She cooperated with galleries and institutions in Poland, Austria and Paris. Her paintings are in the collection of the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, National Museum in Gda\u0144sk, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery in Krak\u00f3w, M Bank Collection and in many private collections in Poland and abroad.\nKus primarily paints people, consistently with the current triumphant return to this classic type of figurativeness. Her trademark use of multiple narratives within a single composition allows a multi-faceted reading of the painting as individual themes or a synthesis of them all, resulting in new meanings. The elusiveness and ambiguity of Kus\u2019s paintings offers many possibilities for interpreting and following their complex narratives. The artist uses a wide range of formal procedures such as pictorial collage, pseudo-cutouts, paste-ins, obliterations and destructions to suggest a juxtaposition of many differently textured and executed compositions.\nZbigniew Libera (born 7 July 1959) is a Polish artist, born in Pabianice, Poland. Libera's artworks are considered to fall under the styles of pop art and critical art, and have been frequently used his works to comment on political and social issues. Considered one of the most renowned Polish artists to date, Libera considers himself the \"Father of Critical Art\". Libera is best known for his controversial 1996 artwork named LEGO Concentration Camp, depicting a Nazi concentration camp made out of Lego bricks. The artwork attracted much controversy, including The Lego Group threatening legal action. Libera is also famous for his photography and videography such as Intimate Rites (1984), How to Train Little Girls (1987) and Pozytywy (English: Positives). \u2018'Pozytywy\u2019' is a series featuring Libera's photographs that capture humans living in war-torn cities.\nThe exhibit Kus + Libera is initiated by the Polish Cultural Institute New York, co-curated and produced in close partnership with Thomas Erben Gallery.\nShahzad Ismaily and Micha\u0142 Dymny DuoPre-Opening ConcertTuesday, September 5 at 5pm\nThomas Erben Gallery526 West 26th Street, Floor 4, New York NY 10001\nShahzad Ismaily (How Shahzad Ismaily Became Musicians\u2019 Favorite Musician - The New York Times) is a Brooklyn-based musician, composer and engineer. Born to Pakistani immigrant parents, he grew up in a wholly bicultural household. Exploring improvisation, tonal shifts and rhythmic movement, Ismaily worked with a number of avante-garde musicians and composers including Laurie Anderson, Anthony Coleman, Milford Graves, Eyvind Kang, Butch Morris and Marc Ribot. Over the last thirty years he has played electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, synthesizers and all manner of sound-makers procured in life\u2019s travels.\nMicha\u0142 Dymny is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, composer and vocalist. His main instruments are piano and electric guitar, on which he has developed an individual style based on sonoristic techniques and preparations of the instrument. Dymny is an active member of the Polish improvised music scene. He was part of the Improvising Artists collective, as well as in projects Entropy, Process - Laboratory of Intuition, and Krakow Improvisers Orchestra. In 2008-2009 Dymny was organizing Open Sessions - regular meetings for improvising musicians. In 2013 he co-founded the Institute of Intuition \u2013 a project dedicated to the development of indeterministic forms of artistic creation.\nConceptually minded, Thomas Erben Gallery strives to either rediscover or expose work that contributes to contemporary discourse and expands beyond the boundaries of the artists\u2019 chosen media. Thomas Erben began his professional involvement in the art world in 1989 as a private dealer focusing on contemporary American art. In 1993, he began organizing exhibitions in his private space, which led to the opening of Thomas Erben Gallery, located, until 2000, on Broome Street in SoHo. His inaugural exhibition in September of 1996 was an installation by Senga Nengudi. From the outset, the program has been multidisciplinary and internationally oriented, showcasing emerging as well as established artists.\nLead image: Agata Kus, Medusa, 2023. 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