Miami Design District Debuts Exhibition by Paulina Olowska
The Craig Robins collection, displayed within the Miami Design District headquarter offices of Dacra, is a private collection of contemporary art and design that represents a broad range of artistic perspectives. The collection is home to works by world-renowned artists including John Baldessari, Richard Tuttle, Kai Althoff, Marlene Dumas and Nicole Eisenman to name a few. The multifaceted collection encompasses a range of disciplines from design to architecture and art.
Currently, the exhibition within the headquarter offices of Dacra is closed. However, based on the belief that art should be shared, the Miami Design District is pleased to debut a series of artist monograph exhibitions taking place in Palm Court Suite 102 & 202, showcasing some of the most cutting-edge contemporary works in the Craig Robins collection. The exhibition will showcase renowned international creatives beginning with 16 works by distinguished artist, Paulina Olowska.
Driven by the belief that “art can change the world,” Paulina’s artworks are often centered on female protagonists depicted smoking and/or drinking, evoking past nostalgia within an imagined present. The artist takes inspiration from Eastern European history and artistic practices as much as from American popular culture, advertising and fashion. The result is a unique contemporary visual language that equally melds memory, Socialist symbols, mass media and more. Working in collage, painting, photography, sculpture, film and performance, Paulina’s art-making process is as unencumbered as her embrace of diverse interests.
Craig Robins was introduced to Paulina’s work by collector and museum director, Karola Krauss. Immediately drawn to the artist’s creative energy, Craig began collecting her work. This exhibition is a selection of Craig’s acquisition highlights spanning almost two decades. Craig has defined his collection through a long-term investment in the artists he believes in, collecting their work over years and in depth.
Paulina’s exhibition will be on view through November 10th and serves as a preview to the larger annual exhibition of Craig Robins’ Art Collection taking place in December.
Location: Palm Court Suite 102 & 202
Dates: Now - November 10, 2020
Times: Mon-Sat 11am-7pm and Sun 12-5pm (Staff will be available to give art tours)
ABOUT PAULINA OLOWSKA
Within Paulina Olowska’s practice, industry, leisure, and socialist symbolism occupy the same visual and cultural space. Her realist paintings, drawings, and collages borrow imagery from Eastern European and American popular culture creating a cross cultural reference that is evident throughout her practice, whilst engaging with the concepts of consumerism, feminism, and design. The outward appearance of Olowska’s female subjects is equally as important as the historical memories interwoven seamlessly throughout her collages and paintings. Olowska’s treatment of her subject’s materialization acts as a direct display of the spirit of the individual, which is likely to be contrasted against a uniformed surrounding reminiscent of life experienced behind the iron curtain.
Olowska’s affinity with performance-based art accounts for much of her appreciation. Most notably is Alphabet (2005), her adaptation of Czech designer Karel Teige's typographic book ABECEDA. Presented at MoMA in 2012, performers mold their bodies to affix the letters of the alphabet, forgetting conventional forms to construct a new system of meaning. At the heart of Olowska’s artistic practice is her collaborative work, lending a platform to her contemporaries who are underrepresented. Demonstrating the disjunction of time and cultural impermeability of Eastern Europe, Olowska’s multifaceted oeuvre establishes a dialogue with the past; she calls upon forms recognizable from multiple collective histories of modernism to adhere with an invented contemporary environment. Notable career achievements include solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw. She received the prestigious Aachen Art Prize in 2014, with an associated exhibition at the Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen, Germany. She has also staged performances at Tate Modern, the Carnegie International, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.