Polish-born New York-based artist Wojciech Gilewicz’ work stands in the borderlands where painting, photography, installation and video meet. A leitmotif winds through his art; the replacement of a fragment of reality with its painted replica and the blurring of the border between the real and the imaginary.
The project he created specially for a theatre in Warsaw, Poland, TR Warszawa back in 2005 consists of images and video film presenting the process by which a canvas is born. In confrontation with the film, the outwardly simple, non-figurative painting emerges in a wholly new light. The entire situation ceases to be clear to the viewer, and the border dividing reality and its painted imitator become blurred.
Once again, in this work for TR Warszawa Wojciech Gilewicz is posing a question as to what is true and what is illusory in the world around us. The theatre foyer is a superb site for Gilewicz' project, since theatre, like painting and photography, creates an illusion of reality. His work also has much in common with both theatre’s scenery and the world constructed upon the stage, a world which impersonates the real one.
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MORE about the artist:
Wojciech Gilewicz (b. 1974) is a Polish-born New York-based interdisciplinary visual artist. He holds an M.F.A from the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland. (www.gilewicz.net) Gilewicz draws on his experience of the painting medium to create formally varied works, also with the use of sculpture and performative actions that seek to investigate the boundaries of art and space. In his recording of reality, Gilewicz often uses the video camera, which can fluidly transform into a means of registering social relations, which take place ‘outside’ his actions performed with or around his paintings or sculptural objects. Gilewicz’s art provokes reflection on the mechanisms which govern perception and its cultural conditioning. The author actively collaborates with the viewer, whom he involves both in his projects and in polemics about myths and stereotypes concerning the most recent art, its reception, and interpretation. Gilewicz takes on board issues related to the role of painting, sculpture, and performance as well as video in today’s world, the status of the artist and artistic work in the context of the institution and the art system as well as the society at large. He is also interested in the role of artist as a citizen.
His solo projects and exhibitions include Wojciech Gilewicz: Videos, Columbus State University, Columbus, USA (2017); Cuboids, Cuchifritos Gallery / Artist Alliance Inc, New York, USA (2015); Rockaway, Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland (2015); Painter’s Painting, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan (2013); Residency Unlimited, Flux Factory, New York, USA (2012); Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland (2009); Front Room: Wojciech Gilewicz, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, USA (2008); Museum of Fine Arts, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine (2007); Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland (2005).
His group projects and exhibitions include (Social) STATUS: UPDATE, NURTUREart, New York, USA (2018); Sense, Art in Odd Places (AiOP), New York, USA (2017); The Travellers, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) and Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2016); IDEAS CITY The Invisible City, New Museum, New York, USA (2015); Seven, The Boiler / Momenta Art, New York, USA (2014); Queens International, Queens Museum, New York, USA (2013); Videorover, NURTUREart, New York, USA (2012); Monitaur, Aspen Art Museum, USA (2009); In Practice, SculptureCenter, New York, USA (2009); Factory, MoBY (Museums of Bat Yam), Bat Yam, Israel (2009); Starting Point: Intrude Art & Life 366, Shanghai Himalayas Museum (former Zendai MoMA), Shanghai, China (2009); Hello Goodbye Thank You Again, castillo/corrales Paris, France (2009); BELGRADE: NONPLACES. Art in public space, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia (2009); Distortion of an Unendurable Reality, Pianissimo, Milan, Italy (2008); Multi-way Street annex to the exhibition Beautiful Losers, Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland (2007); and On Their Own Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2006).
Video works by the artist were presented internationally in the framework of numerous screenings including Media Art Biennale WRO, Rencontres Internationales Paris / Berlin / Madrid, CURRENTS: Santa Fe International New Media Festival, and Hors Pistes Japon.
Gilewicz’ residencies, grants and awards include Queens Council on the Arts New Work Grant, New York, USA (2018); Maison Marchou, Hanoi, Vietnam (2018); Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Work Space, New York, USA (2016-2017); Queens Council on the Arts SU-CASA, New York, USA (2016); The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, USA (2014); Art OMI Residency, Ghent, USA (2014); Joan Mitchell Foundation Emergency Grant Program, New York, USA (2013); Residency Unlimited, New York, USA (2012); Akiyoshidai International Art Village Residency, Yamaguchi, Japan (2011); UNESCO-Aschberg Grant, Paris, France (2010); Changdong Art Studio/National Museum of Contemporary Art Residency, Seoul, South Korea (2010); and International Studio&Curatorial Program, New York, USA (2008).
The artist’s works were reviewed in Art Forum, Art Pulse, and Frieze among others.
Gilewicz’ works are in many public and private collections in Poland and abroad, including Shanghai Himalayas Museum, China; Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Museum of Modern Art and CCA Ujazdowski Castle, all in Warsaw, Poland; Omi International Arts Center, Ghent, USA, and MoCA Belgrade, Serbia.
In 2017 Wojciech Gilewicz established Beach64retreat in the Rockaways, Queens, New York for creative individuals as the artist’s response to the rising precarity in arts & culture around the world. The retreat is on invitation and completely free of charge. (www.beach64retreat.wordpress.com)
More info: gilewicz.net