Monika Zawadzki Cattle

05.04 – 18.05.2014 Monika Zawadzki Cattle

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

curator: Maria Brewińska
collaboration: Katarzyna Kołodziej

Monika Zawadzki (b. 1977) creates simple forms, in the vein of traditional graphic design, using sculpture, painting, and video. One of the main themes of her work is the idea of identity creation, expressed through various universal and simple shapes. Zawadzki is preoccupied with issues of social exclusion or limitation, the mechanisms of individual functioning, alterity and corporeality, which she investigates from a broad perspective. She is also interested in the notion of transformation and its various aspects. She understands the ‘natural community’ of animate and inanimate matter as a symbiosis on the interpersonal level and on the level of relations with nature and civilisation.

Through her art, Zawadzki brings up the issue of the Other, manifested here primarily in the form of animals, attesting to our affection for them and transgressing the usual notion of love as an emotion reserved for human-to-human relations. She thus destabilises the anthropocentric paradigm, according to which man is the centre of all things, and the ultimate, perfect product of evolution. The continued reign of the anthropocentric model in the human studies means that other species, and their subjectivities, have been excluded from the field of academic knowledge. It seems, however, that the contemporary discourse around the love of the Other is embodied not only in the animal rights movement but also in a broader movement on behalf of all repressed Others. These various aspects of love find their expression in Zawadzki’s works, full of affirmation, as they are, that does not destroy the Other’s otherness.

Monika Zawadzki has shown her work in solo exhibitions, e.g. at the CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw (2008, 2010) and the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv (2012). Her sculptures and murals are in the collections of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź and Warsaw’s CCA Ujazdowski Castle. She is also involved in independent projects. Applied graphic design is an important area of her practice.

Works on exhibition

  • Zdjęcie pracy Untitled (from the series Human and Animal Rights)
    Untitled (from the series Human and Animal Rights)Monika Zawadzki 2006
  • Zdjęcie pracy Nursing Mother
    Nursing MotherMonika Zawadzki 2014
  • Zdjęcie pracy Cow
    CowMonika Zawadzki 2014
  • Zdjęcie pracy Boiled Head
    Boiled HeadMonika Zawadzki 2014
  • Zdjęcie pracy Diptych — Self-portrait 1, 2
    Diptych — Self-portrait 1, 2Monika Zawadzki 2014
  • Zdjęcie pracy Membranes (Hands, Legs, Torsos)
    Membranes (Hands, Legs, Torsos)Monika Zawadzki 2013

Artist's works in the Zachęta collection

  • Zdjęcie pracy Self-portrait 1, 2 (Diptych)
    Self-portrait 1, 2 (Diptych)Monika Zawadzki 2014
Related media
  • Grafika obiektu: Zachęta. March, April, May 2014
    mediateka / folders / Texts
    Zachęta. March, April, May 2014
    Magazine
  • Grafika obiektu:
    mediateka / folders / Texts
  • Grafika obiektu:
    mediateka / folders / Texts
  • Grafika obiektu: Monika Zawadzki. Cattle
    mediateka / posters
    Monika Zawadzki. Cattle
  • Grafika obiektu: Monika Zawadzki
    mediateka / video-documentation
    Monika Zawadzki
    Cattle

Information

Monika Zawadzki
Cattle
05.04 – 18.05.2014

Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
pl. Małachowskiego 3, 00-916 Warsaw
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Godziny otwarcia:
Tuesday – Sunday 12–8 p.m.
Thursday – free entry
ticket office is open until 7.30 p.m.

sponsors of the opening ceremony: DeLonghi, Kenwood, Freixenet
media patronage: K Mag, The Warsaw Voice, Stolica, Artinfo.pl