Grappling with Gestures, the Gaze Wanders

Exploring a variety of media and forms, including sculpture, installation and drawing,
Gizela Mickiewicz’s investigates bodily orientation in the world and the manifold ways through which inner experiences, memories, thoughts and interpersonal relationships are reflected in the bodily gestures, postures and movements, mirroring feelings and emotional tensions.

For many years Mickiewicz’s work has been driven lead by the idea of translating ephemeral and spiritual states into sculptural objects, using solid materials, often brilliantly juxtaposed in contradictory combinations, such as steel and ceramic. Her work has then now evolved towards a more synthetic formal definition, reaching the stage in which form and materiality harmonize with the content, expressing the same thing and opening up to a space for empathy and reciprocal comprehension.

Defined by the artist as performative and situational sculptures, her recent body of works refers to the human figure and to the plasticity of meanings that the latter can carry. Some works also emphasize the role that negative and empty spaces establish with the concepts of memory and remembrance, often conceived as cognitive tools that intervene as a the mental “completation” of an abstract sculpture, intentionally left incomplete and open to interpretation.

Gizela Mickiewicz (b. 1984, Poland) lives and works in Warsaw. She received an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland. Solo shows include: L21, Palma de Mallorca (2023); Stereo, Warsaw (2022, 2020, 2017, 2015 and, 2011); Lucas Hirsch, Dusseldorf (2017); Arsenal, Białystok (2016); Frutta, Rome (2013) and, BWA Zielona Góra (2013). Group exhibitions include: Lovay Fine Arts, Geneva (2023); ASP Gallery, Kraków (2023); Pamoja Foundation, Warsaw (2023); Museum of Textiles, Łódź (2022); ECHO Cologne (2022); Art Encounters Biennial, Public Transport Museum, Timisoara (2021); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2022); CAC, Vilnius (2020); Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2019); BOZAR, Brussels (2018); Bureau, New York (2015); Bunkier Sztuki, Cracow (2015); Kunsthalle Bratislava (2015) and Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2014). Mickiewicz completed a residency at Gasworks, London (2014) and Triangle, New York (2016). She was shortlisted to for the VIEWS – Deutsche Bank Award (2019).

Alessandro Teoldi’s practice crosses heterogeneous languages, ranging from painting, drawing, textile and sculpture to installation. His works explore the intimacy of the domestic environment and interpersonal relationships, the sense of belonging and detachment, but also the memory of private and collective experiences, arising from the encounter with objects, forms and specific materials.

Through the use of inflight airplane blankets – personally found, bought online or collected by friends and often coupled with cotton, linen and other materials – Teoldi creates textile compositions in which cut-out and sewn together fragments are assembled to form silhouettes caught in the act of showing and hiding, seeking and finding themselves in situations of physical contact, shyness or desire. Either isolated or grouped figures, portions of bodies, tangles of hands, arms, backs and glimpses of natural elements and landscapes are Teoldi’s main subjects, often yielded in formal terms midway between figuration and abstraction: that moment of ‘almost’ suspension that invites the onlooker to retrace connections and imagine possible ties.

Alongside his textile works, over the last three years, the artist has developed a series of concrete reliefs, in the wake of his fascination with the language of photography. Like for his textiles, the subjects of these works are snapshots of everyday life, still lives, moments of interaction with almost insignificant objects, but also barely noticeable gestures or moments of physical and sensual encounters which hint at a glimmer of familiarity and protection, thus at odds with the hardness of the material.

Alessandro Teoldi is a New York-based artist born in Milan, Italy in 1987. He received his MFA from ICP-Bard College, New York and a BA in Photography from Istituto Europeo di Design, Milan. His work has been exhibited in public and private spaces. Solo shows include: Capsule, Shanghai (2023 and 2021); Marinaro, New York (2022 and 2020); Suprainfinit Gallery, Bucharest (2018); Viasaterna, Milan (2018); The Cabin, Los Angeles (2018) and 11 Rivington, New York (2017). His collective projects include: Taymour Grahne Projects, London (2022); FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2021); Magazzino Italian Art, Cold Springs, New York (2020); Klaus von Nichtssagend, New York (2017); The Camera Club of New York (2016) and International Center of Photography, New York (2013). He was one of the 2018 residents at La Brea Artist Residency, Los Angeles, CA and a 2015 Workspace Baxter St resident at the Camera Club in New York.