A solo exhibition of eclectic works related to the artist\'s issues with his ESL status december 5, 2013 – march 16, 2014
Opening reception: december 4, 2013
Appropriating the acronym for English as a Second Language, Piotr Uklański’s upcoming exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art will be titled ESL. As Uklański embraces this acronym as a descriptive signifier of his own status as an immigrant not fully integrated into American society, this title also points to his unconventional conceptual and aesthetic art practice, an oeuvre that suggests irreverence towards mainstream art. His exhibition will showcase a precise but eclectic selection of works from his wide-ranging practice, which includes sculpture, painting, photography, performance, and film. Combined with selections from the collection of the Bass Museum of Art, Uklański’s works will address issues related to his ESL status—whether through their outsider relationship to American pop culture, their aspirations over the fabled American Dream, or through Americanized references to Polish history and art. As an immigrant living and working in the birthplace of Abstract Expressionism, Uklański states, “Neither English nor abstraction is my mother tongue. These paintings ‘speak’ an aesthetic ESL.”
Organized by Silvia Karman Cubina, Executive Director and Chief Curator, with assistance from Bryan Granger, Knight Curatorial Fellow
image credit:
Untitled (Its Dark in my Heart), 2012; Untitled (Warsaw Uprising ’44 Pruszków), 2008
Installation view, exhibition “Piotr Uklański. Czterdzieści i cztery”, Zachęta National Gallery of Art
Photo: Maciej Landsberg
www.bassmuseum.org
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