Marzena NOWAK and Marieta CHIRULESCU | The persistence of scraps
November 27 – January 29, 2022
Gregor Podnar is pleased to present “The persistence of scraps” by Marzena Nowak. In parallel bodies of works, Nowak’s reference of memories, fantasies and dreams are resurrected and reimagined. Her artistic negotiation of memory reveals how fragments or “scraps” of the past and the imagination get configured, subsequently conditioning the present and the future. Persistent in many of Nowak’s drawings and paintings are the layered fragments of found sewing patterns. Her tireless retracing of the delicate lines and forms reveal themselves as a vehicle for thinking, a reconciliation of thought. Layers of colour further abstract the intricacy of their entanglement. Nowak’s visual language maps out spaces of time, an arrival at and a departure from an almost impenetrable narrative. Her tracings rest and simultaneously emerge seemingly in motion. It is upon the fragments which are usually discarded that Nowak focuses her attention and a certain sense of intensity is revealed by that which is not seen.
Born in 1977 in Piaseczno, Poland, Marzena Nowak lives and works between Warsaw and Casablanca. Nowak has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions at international galleries and museums including, mumok – Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (2021); Neuer Kunstverein Wien (2018); Pori Art Museum, Pori (2016); CAC – Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2015); Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2014); Salzburger Kunstverein, Künstlerhaus Salzburg (2011); and CoCA Center of Contemporary Art Toruń (2011) amongst others. Her work also featured in the 50th Venice Biennale, Venice (2003).