Curioser and Curioser: Antoinette Wysocki
Framed: 15 3/4 x 16 1/2 in
BLANK SPACE is pleased to present an exhibition of Antoinette Wysocki, Curiouser and Curiouser, the artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. Featuring the artist’s unique technique of mixed-media collage on rag, this exhibition will portray the dialogue between organic and abstract forms and symbolism as an expression of social and political commentary. The show will be on view from March 29 through May 13, 2018, with an opening reception on April 12.
Taking into account the texture, viscosity, saturation, and absorption rate of medium, Wysocki combines various materials of acrylic, rag, gold leaf, and collage, allowing them to interact autonomously, as they bind and refract from each other on the canvas. Together with the artist’s expressive gestures, this unique process creates a space occupied by random chance and conscious happening. Working in between layers of color and form, Antoinette Wysocki juxtaposes non-objective elements with recognizable imagery showing the interrelation between abstract and literal.
Wysocki incorporates iconography with evocative symbols and text to portray the current wave of social and political change. Motifs of butterflies, paper airplanes, dart target, flag banners signify short-lived beauty and vulnerability, a nostalgic journey to one’s memories of youth. Phrases like “SELFIE HERE OMG” and “YOU CAN’T JUDGE A GIRL… DREAMS CAN COME TRUE,” allude to obsessions among present day youth, and empowerment of young women. The artist describes the different elements in her paintings as “seeking to balance the subjective with the concrete, the abstracted with the detailed, and the sign with the signified.” Alice from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a repetitive motif in Wysocki’s recent series, is a female hero from her childhood, a symbol of courage and curiosity, and a voice for young women to seize challenge and to take on adventures and dreams.
With her studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art, San Francisco Art Institute, Trinity College, and Corcoran College of Art, Antoinette Wysocki has had exhibitions in New York, California, Washington DC, Chicago, London, Hong Kong.
