Through December 22, 2019
Alicja Kwade’s sculptures authoritatively occupy this large gallery space, commanding a presence comparable with the most progressive artists working today. Kwade, a native of Poland who currently lives and works in Berlin, has had a significant impact on the global art circuit over the last decade. Her work inclines toward science, exploring time and subjectivity in works made of glass, concrete, wood, and steel. The space they occupy activates an immersive experience.
Kwade chemically treats sheets of glass in order to change their reflective properties such that they become mirrors that alter the color of objects reflected within them. The objects, usually stones or orb-like balls that resemble stone, are placed in such a way as to appear either whole or bisected, or have their color change completely as you walk around the installations. This is dramatically at work in “Changed, where three tall steel-framed rectangles come together at one point so that a perpendicular relationship is set up among them. Two rocks on other side of the bisecting plane are reflected and mutated depending on the viewing point, sometimes disappearing altogether. She has created a minimalist metaphysical playground full of visual conundrums. In “MatterMotion” three sets of steel planes intersect centrally. They bear granite rocks precariously above, implying potential energy and danger. Minimalism always seemed to be about “what you see is what you get;” what Kwade delivers is more than you’d ever expect to see.
