Monika Weiss

Montreal, February 22, 2006 – Galerie Samuel Lallouz is pleased to present an exhibition of drawings by New York-based artist Monika Weiss. Born in Poland, Monika Weiss explores relationships between the body and the spaces around it. Working in various media including installation and performance, drawing has remained the foundation of her work. The artist is interested in the interplay of symbolic and formal aspects in the representation of the human figure, such as in medieval and renaissance painting. Other influences in her work are the formal simplicity of Minimalism, and the dark immediacy of charcoal on paper.

The drawings selected for the exhibition at Galerie Samuel Lallouz were created during the last si x years. Exploring the human figure, mostly as a solitary and fragile body, the artist focuses on the quality of skin that has properties similar to paper, which easily tears apart, decays, becomes brittle over time. The body bears traces of events, marks and stains that connote time. The human silhouette in Weiss’ drawings exists beyond its gender. Yet it is also autobiographical since she uses her own form and its charcoal imprint on the paper. This is the first solo exhibition of the work of Monika Weiss in Montreal.

Other recent exhibitions include:

Phlegethon-Milczenie, Inter-Galerie, Potsdam/Berlin, Germany (March-April 2005)

Lete-Przes t rzen Rysunku, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (April 2005)

Monika Weiss: Five Rivers – Sculpture, Drawing, Ins tallation and Sound 1999-2005 at the Lehman College Art Gallery, New York (September-December 2005)

Remy Toledo Gallery in New York City

In 2006, Weiss’ long-term installation Ennoia will be part of You Won’ t Feel a Thing curated by Aneta Szylak at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

Pressetext

Monika Weiss
Performing the Drawing: Between Body and Space Ennoia and other series of drawings 1999–2005