Monika Weiss: VESSELS

Through drawing, performance, video, and installation, New York-based Polish artist Monika Weiss creates environments which relate to the body and its condition in the space between biology and culture. In her drawings an anonymous, alienated silhouette appears, posturing in undefined states of waiting, or reacting to the unknown. In her performative installations the viewer encounters scenes of repetitions and rituals, counteracted by projected video documenting the action. Such works combine states of endurance and duration with symbolic forms reminiscent of medieval paintings, and with the formal simplicity of Minimalism.

Vessels presents new installation, sculpture, drawing, and writing. It includes a multi-media performative installation Limen/Meadow (Achea Rheon) in collaboration with sound artist Stephen Vitiello (in the Project Room); a video-and-sound sculpture White Chalice (Ennoia); recent charcoal and mixed-media drawings; and a selection of artist’s texts written between 2002-2003 exploring the ideas of containing and being contained, landscape, body, surface, and metaphors of fluidity.

Weiss received her Master's degree in painting and drawing from the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw. She has been a visiting artist at universities in Europe and the United States, including School of The Art Institute of Chicago, 2002; University of Maryland, 1999; Georgia State University School of Art and Design, 1997-98; Spelman College, 1996; and Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts, 1994-95. In New York City Weiss exhibited at the Chelsea Art Museum, 2003; El Museo del Barrio, 2003; and Diapason Gallery, 2002. Solo exhibitions include Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, 1997; BMB Gallery, Amsterdam, 1993 and 1996; and Galerie Espace Degree, Luxembourg, 1995. Her drawings are part of the permanent collection of the Albertina Museum, Vienna. In 2003 her works were part of Art in General's Annual Artists' Benefit StudioTour; the Whitney Museum of American Art's Family Day; and Saatchi & Saatchi 's Harlem Art Project/Ray of Light benefit auction. She is currently a member of the New York-based artists' and curators' organization Nomads + Residents. In 2005, her new longterm installation Ennoia will be featured as part of You Won't Feel a Thing, curated by Aneta Szylak, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

Curated by Nina Colosi.

MONIKA WEISS VESSELS was made possible thanks to the generous support of Chelsea Art Museum. Additional support was provided by Experimental Intermedia Foundation and Polish Cultural Institute, New York. Special thanks to Dr. Dorothea Keeser. Additional thanks to Brendan Atkinson, Carlton Bright and Mathew Griffin.

Pressetext

Monika Weiss: VESSELS
Installation, Sculpture, Drawing
kuratiert von Nina Colosi

Opening Performance
Sound in Zusammenarbeit mit Stephen Vitiello