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In the singular voice that reverberates throughout all of Xawery Wolski’s work, Metamorphosis presents a selection of sculpture that employs material and form to speak to themes of time, space, freedom, connection and communication. This exhibition showcases a body of work spanning from 2004 through 2023 made from bonze, fiberglass, clay, and glass. Despite the varying mediums on view, the exhibition unifies to one voice: transporting the viewer into a dream-like state of contemplation and curiosity. A smooth, white, terracotta tree; a smooth, bronze figure of a body; a large, vibrant-blue, beaded terracotta circle; a white, spikey terracotta form of a figure; and large dresses knitted together from beads of crystals, seeds and terracotta – all of these seemingly disparate forms, weights and color come together in Metamorphosis to shock the viewer into feeling a moment of freedom or peace. Using material as language, the forms suggest a thread connecting all. As the title of the show suggests, Wolski creates forms that feel transient, as if they could easily transform into one another. The briery, terracotta body (Body, 2014) informs and connects the viewer to the smooth, bronze body (The Dream III)- both utterly unique in composition yet with a similar voice. The past and the future of each piece is left undefined and is only held within the material for this iteration of the form. Just as a dreamer subconsciously threads ideas and creates narrative within their dreams, these sculptures thrill the viewer to construct their own dreamlike narrative.
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Xawery Wolski has traveled the world and has participated in several residency programs in South America, Asia and India. Over the years each of these countries have impacted and brought new techniques and materials to his work. His interest in terracotta and its multiple anthropological meanings lead him to Peru and Mexico where he investigated ancient materials and ways of expression with the purpose of creating contemporary artwork. The very first dress he created was “a long time ago,” in Perú, woven of hand-formed terracotta beads. He had visited the pre-Columbian graves of Inca warriors and was inspired by the lasting idea of the garments they were buried in. The body becomes dust; the armor of adornment holds the shape of the long-passed soul within for centuries. “The idea of the absent body—there is an existential background to all these works,” he says. “The dresses [I make] are spiritual tunics, or armor for a knight.” He never makes utilitarian dresses for wear—they remain themselves solely objects of art, ones that subvert the ancient realm of weavers whose aim was to wrap, to cover, to adorn. He works, rather, in the employ of art, and beauty, and ideas.
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Wolski’s predecessors in minimal sculpture (Brancusi, Judd, Morris) inform the art he creates with the purest organic materials: seeds, beans, rope, clay, shells, stone. His work with seeds illustrates the continuum of form and life; a seed contains all that its maturity will be: its birth, death, and eventual return to life. The use of seeds and other organic material for Wolski is not only a homage to nature but a way to connect with the metaphor of continuation and cycles of earth’s history. The sculptures draw no limits and seek to stimulate reflections on presence and absence, giving a metaphysical aspect to work.
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Wolski’s work is a demonstration of connectivity and communication. Growing up in Poland during the Communist Party’s occupation, the artist inherited an atmosphere of both regression and rebellion. From his restricted life as a youth, Xawery has become dedicated to the pursuit of freedom, especially for the artist. “Knowing that we are all alike…we have a desire for freedom, happiness….we fear disease, bad luck, death…and finally, no matter which cultural, social, or moral patterns we know, we look for communication.” It is this connection and finding new ways to communicate that drive Wolski. His work, when successful, has no connection to an exact time and can speak to both past and future, creating a universal language.
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METAMORPHOSIS: XAWERY WOLSKI
Past viewing_room
