Marzena Nowak - Galerija Gregor Podnar.

Marzena Nowak
PORTFOLIO
Lindenstr. 35 | 10969 Berlin | Germany | tel. +49 30 259 346 51 | fax +49 30 259 346 52 | berlin@gregorpodnar.com | www.gregorpodnar.com
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FILMS - SELECTION
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Untitled (Lines)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 2 min 5 sec, looped, ed. of 5 +AP, 2002
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Untitled (Water)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 30 sec, looped, ed. of 5 +AP, 2002
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Untitled (Eyelashes)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 30 sec, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2003
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Untitled (Mirror)
Digital b&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 30 sec, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2003
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Untitled (Szwalnia)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 5 min, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2004
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Untitled (Cosmos)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 2 min 30 sec, looped, ed. of 5 +AP, 2004
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Untitled (Licking)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 47 sec, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2009
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Untitled (Tear Trajectory)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 4 sec, ed. of 5 +AP, 2009
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Untitled (Hand)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 59 sec, ed. of 5 +AP, 2010
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Untitled (Mizianie)
B&w video on DVD, duration: 2 min 3 sec, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2010
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Breznieniowka
Digital video, duration 2 min 33 sec, ed of 5 + AP, 2012
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PHOTOGRAPHS - SELECTION
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Untitled (Glove)
B&w print, 32 x 27,7 cm, framed, ed. of 4 + AP, 2009
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Untitled (Waves)
B&w print, 26 x 34,5 cm, framed, ed. of 4 + AP, 2010
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Untitled (Open Mouth)
B&w print, 64 x 46 cm, framed, ed. of 4 + AP, 2011
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OBJECTS - SELECTION
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Untitled (green ribbon)
Paint on steel, dim variable, 2011
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Untitled (small thotem)
Thread, wooden part of furniture, found children blocks, 48 cm long, 2011
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Untitled (pink balls)
Acrylic on steel, glass, alabaster, diameter from 3 cm till 12 cm, 2011
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Space between big and second foot toe as keyhole
Steel, 4 x 1,3 x 5 cm, 2009
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Two belts taken from mens and women's trousers
Dimension Variable, cut out parts of trousers, 2011
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Untitled (Cuffs)
Cut out cuffs, dimension variable, 2011
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Untilted (Klocki)
Acrylic on wood and steel, dimension variable, 2011

Untitled (Hula Hoops)
Acrylic on steel, bubble gum, ¢ 100 cm, 2011
The idea was born when I found in my cellar the old childish hula hop made of wood– I repeated it in steel, painted
it with acrylic on original colour and added a bubble gum as the memory of childhood. I took away the function of it
by using very heavy material.
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Untitled (Hula Hoop)
Steel, thread ¢ 95 cm, 2011
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Untitled (Hula Hoop)
Steel, thread, ¢ 95, 2011
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Untitled (Big Circle)
Steel, thread, ¢ 180 cm, 2011
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Untitled (Parquet Boards)
Oil on parquet boards, 7 x 31 x 2 cm, 2010
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Untitled (Red Ribbon)
Acrylic on steel, 110 x 110 x 100 cm, 2011
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Untitled (Clips)
Oil painting on steel, variable dimension, 2011
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Untitled (Ball)
Oil painting on steel, 80 x 80 x 80 cm, 2011
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Untitled (Ringo)
Acrylic on steel, 70 x 80 x 80 cm, 2011
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Space between
Cut carpet, thread, 190 x 170 cm, 2009
This work is about the space between. I cut out the space between two sofas usually taken by two people in the
apartment. Sometimes space and distance is felt more deeply and physically – the space in every meaning. I think
also that sadness is ornamental.
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Exhibition view at Galerija Gregor Podnar, 2009
Untitled
Carpets, wood, electric motor, music box, ca. 250 x 190 x 15 cm, 2009
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DRAWINGS, PAINTINGS - SELECTION
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Untitled (small paintings)
Acrylic, oil, pen on cut furniture, 18 x 13 cm, 2011
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Untitled (small paintings)
Acrylic, oil, pen on cut furniture, 18 x 13 cm, 2011
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Untitled (small paintings)
Acrylic, oil, pen on cut furniture, 18 x 13 cm, 2011
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Untitled (Cutouts)
Carbon copy traces on canvas, 200 x 600 cm, 2003
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Untitled
Pencil on paper, 61 x 43 cm, 2011
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Detail
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Exhibition view at Galerija Gregor Podnar, 2012
Untitled
Series of original postcards from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012
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Untitled (#6 + #8)
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012
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Untitled (#5 + #10)
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012
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Untitled (#1 + #11)
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012
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Untitled (#9 + #4)
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012
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Untitled (#7 + #2)
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012
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EXHIBITION - SELECTION
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Exhibition view at Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, 2012

Exhibiition view, Art Station Foundation, Poznan, 2011
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Exhibition view, Museum der Wünsche, MUMOK, Vienna,2011

Exhibition view, CoCA Center of Contemporary Art Torun, 2011
Marzena Nowakʼs work is characterized by subtle structures in which the ephemeral and fragile attain form and
become visible. Her reductive “images” for the mental and emotional are conceptually precise and at the same time
poignantly sensual. The artist proves to be walking the line in many ways: in establishing a connection between
painting, drawing, photography, video, sculptural objects and installation thematically, she also draws into focus the
relation between personal experiences and socio-cultural framing conditions. A central role is played here by the
transforming power of memory in which original facts merge with later projections and form new hybrid concepts.
Characteristic for this are her painted metal objects that reference toys from childhood, like plastic balls, skipping
ropes or wooden blocks and on first glance appear no different from them. However, the airiness, lightness and
mobility so characteristic of playthings congeal into weighty symbols. In these painted objects, the past acquires a
new tint and memories of play fuse with the playful aspects of memory.
The field of tension indicated in these works between the joyful, playful self-reference, and the rules and norms
determined by the games themselves as well as by the outside world circumscribes a specific thematic aspect
within an oeuvre which is generally characterized by the making visible of ambiguous tensions.
Therefore the artist also employs fragments of her own body in her videos, for example when she shows
monotonous and repetitive gestures of her hands that tell us that physical proximity and distance, tenderness and
pain as well as self-determination and loss of control are interlinked phenomena. She thus not only subverts clichéd
polarizations of emotional states but also questions the notion that mental states are purely subjective experiences.
In the repetitive-monotonous body language personal states of mind become manifested not only as issues of
intimacy, but also as echoes of early memories of a hermetic social order and its effects on private life.
Some of Marzena Nowakʼs objects are reminiscent of former living spaces whose dimensions—that is, the spaces
between them and her own body or the furniture and the walls—she reconstructs in the form of metal bars in
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various lengths. In this way, the in-between and empty spaces take concrete form and at the same time their very
presence indicates the absence of the real objects. Thus these works not only imagine absent true to scale space,
but in their shapes memory also obtains concrete and, at the same time, abstract form.
In another work with references on architecture she transforms one corner of the museum into an ostensibly
domestic, intimate atmosphere through a carpet and circulating wall moulding. Yet, the carpet is merely a fragment,
so that its presence recalls the absence of furniture and liveability. And upon further reflection, the circulating wood
moulding emerges as a requisite that should protect the wall from human traces and thereby possesses a bodily
resistant role. So the space suggests a homeliness that at once appears broken and is able to induce critical
reflections on internalized perceptions about room and body.
The role of memory in Marzena Nowakʼs work also refers to the significance of time in. The passage of time and its
function as measure for human actions informs the conceptual approach in her new paintings as well. Here the
expressive and emotional aspects of color are subjected to an analytical painterly process executed on a
prescreened base, making the act of painting appear like a kind of metric counting process. But within the
geometric preset order a free play of colors and structures appears. Density and empty spaces combine into a
disturbing spatial weave of a dynamic openness in which deviation and order become continually intertwined.
These paintings display a systematic abstraction that still allows for the coincidental and the unpredictable. With
their pixilated patterned structure they trace an arc to not only the patchwork of painted gaming pieces but also to
the fragmented and patterned, colorful rug objects as well. Even their brightly colored splendor and their
ornamental patterns contain gestures of repetition and monotony, thus reflecting memories of days gone by. For the
viewer such references turn the individual works into a dynamic and open network and transform the interstices of
the exhibition space into an in-between space with “weight.”
Rainer Fuchs
(Press release for solo exhibition CoCA Center of Contemporary, 2011)

Exhibition view, Salzburger Kunstverein 2011
Ephemeral and fragile, but at the same time full of urgency and presence, this is how the work of the young Polish
artist Marzena Nowak is described. How does the artist manage to connect these contrasts in her videos,
sculptures, and paintings? Everything originates with the body. But this body is not a thing or a tool, but rather a
seismograph of the soul. Watching her videos, it seems as though the body is set in oscillations through a specific
form of mental urgency. The artist chronicles these in small scenes of repeated gestures, thereby opening up a
space of association for us that bespeaks pain, tenderness, and intimacy.
Die Psyche ist ausgedehnt (The Psyche is Expansive) was the title of one of the artistʼs recent exhibitions. When
we enter one of Ms. Nowakʼs shows we find ourselves in this space of the psyche. Memories of childhood and
youth, patterns, repetitions, spaces in between materialize as psychological distance in the actual artifacts set up in
the space and are made tangible.
This parcours leads us through the boundaries of the body, inside, and back out again. “The body in my work is
psyche,” says the artist – but the last secrets can be drawn from neither the body nor the psyche. The power of
Marzena Nowakʼs artwork lies much more in making the mental work of repetition visible and in the physical
persistence of the search.
(Press release for solo exhibition Salzburger Kunstverein, 2011)
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Exhibition view Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna 2011
With subtle structures, Marzena Nowak creates memorable works that conceptually approach the sensual and the
sensitive. This appears in the meticulous geometry of her new paintings as well as in the sparing repetitive
gestures of her body-related videos and in the reductive alienation of the Real in her objects and installations. The
artist abstracts and minimizes, she orients herself toward the intermediate and empty spaces in order to expose the
uncertain, the inaudible, and the ephemeral. The crossing over between artistic media is thereby associated with a
balancing act between the psychologically ephemeral and the physically tangible.
With the help of her own body, which she utilises fragmented in her videos, Marzena Nowak refers with sensitive
gestures of repetition to the relational network of contrary mental and corporal conditions and experiences, such as
endearment and pain, proximity and distance, internalization and externalization. Memories of monotonous,
everyday childhood experiences resonate and allude to the correlations between personal experiences and
societal parameters. In her new video, the looped image of a tiring and, time and again, precipitously irritable hand
mediates the interplay between dream and reality, between the obliviousness of sleep and alert self-control. As
though the hand was following a choreography, in which sinking into internal seclusion and the contrary attempt to
find support in external reality incessantly slide into each other. The oscillation of human sensitivity and emotionality
between conscious and unconscious, between emphaticness and loss of control, finds here a memorable symbol,
which in its allusion to the change from day and night also addresses the passing of time.
Marzena Nowak also seeks out the ambiguity of emotion in everyday historical and socio-cultural references when
she transforms the entry room of the gallery into an ostensibly domestic, intimate atmosphere through a carpet and
circulating wall moulding. Yet, the carpet is merely a fragment, its form characterizes the space between two sofas,
so that its presence recalls the absence of furniture and liveability. And upon further reflection, the circulating wood
moulding emerges as a requisite that should protect the wall from human traces and thereby possesses a bodily
resistant role. So, this space suggests a homeliness that at once appears broken and is able to induce critical
reflections on internalized perceptions about room and body.
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In some works, the visualization of emotion and time go hand in hand. This also becomes meaningful in regard to
those new paintings that consist of precisely painted, colourful, geometric structures and recall the repetitive,
ornamental patterns of carpets. It is by no coincidence that these paintings occur on a graphically prepared area
and, significantly, the artist appropriates the gestures of repetition as her painterly concept, that, nevertheless, flows
into a dynamically pulsating and spatially irritating colour web. Field for field, painted little by little, each image
appears like a puzzle of time with agglomerations and blank spaces. As the primary means of emotional
expression, the colour is here subject to a systematic abstraction, but that still allows for the coincidental and the
unpredictable space. In this way Marzena Nowak deliberately keeps the play with the psyche and the unconscious
open.
Rainer Fuchs
(Press release for solo exhibition at Galerie Mezzanin, Wien, 2011)

Installation view at Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, 2009
The work of Marzena Nowak is created from memory and imagination, residing somewhere in the tension between
autobiographical reference points and poetically immersed dream worlds. Marzena Nowak’s sensitivity to everyday
occurrences and the relation to her own physicality often represent the thematic departure points for her artistic
practice.
At the Galerija Gregor Podnar, Nowak will show Untitled (Stars), two large format, star-like blueprint drawings on
canvas, along with the video work Untitled (Trilogy) with three scenes intimate and mysterious details of a moving
body, down from draping hair, caressing fingers and a slightly opened lips. Finally, Novak will present Untitled
(Grating), an architectural intervention in the form of a window grating conceived especially for the gallery space.
Amongst these four works created specifically for the exhibition, there will also be smaller works on view.
(Press release for the solo exhibition at Galerija Gregor Podnar, March - Aprl 2009)
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Installation views, Palazzo Zenobio, Venice, 2003 (with Miroslaw Balka) and Centre of Contemporary Art,
Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, 2002
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MARZENA NOWAK
Born 1977 in Piaseczno / Warsaw, Poland
1997-2002 Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw
Lives and works in Warsaw
Solo exhibitions
2012
Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany
2011
CoCA Center of Contemporary Art Torun, Poland
Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna, Austria
Salzburger Kunstverein, Künstlerhaus, Salzburg, Austria
2010
Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich, Germany
Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2009
Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany
2008
Mezzanin Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich, Germany
Passage Galerie, Künstlerhaus, Wien, Austria
2007
Raum für Reflexion, Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau/Gartensaal, Dessau, Germany
Piekary Gallery, Poznan, Poland
2006
Milonga Nacht, Neue Kunst im Hagenbucher, Heilbronn, Germany
2005
Public Space, Dessau, Germany
Wizytujaca Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
ZOO-exhibition space, Warsaw, Poland
2004
Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Statement, Art 35 Basel, Switzerland
Starmach Gallery, Cracow, Poland
2003
Kultur Kontakt, Pavillon Piroschka rev, quartier21, MQ, Vienna, Austria
Gallery Kronika, Bytom. Poland
Gallery Zakret, Warsaw, Poland
Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2001
ASP, Warsaw, Poland
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Group exhibitions
2011
Art Stations Foundation, Poznan, Poland
MUMOK, Vienna, Austria
2010
ISCP, New York, Usa
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany
Mart, Rovereto, Italy
2009
National Museum, Krakau, Poland
Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
CSW Centre of Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany
2008
Wola Art Festival, Warsaw, Poland
Rondo Sztuki, Katowice, Poland
Galerie Karin Sachs, Munich, Germany
2007
Andreas Huber Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Dvir Gallery (with Miroslaw Balka and Rafał Jakubowicz), Tel-Aviv, Israel
Gallery Manhattan, Lodz, Poland
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
Gallery Mezzanin, Vienna, Austria
2006
Narodowa Galeria Sztuki Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland
Terytoria, Lubelskie Towarzystwo Sztuk Pieknych Zacheta, Lublin, Poland
Narodowa Galeria Sztuki Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland
2005
Vienna International Apartment, Turku, Finland
Collection Fundacja Malopolska, MCK, Cracow, Poland
Lokal 30, Warsaw, Poland,
Press to Exit, Skopje, Macedonia
Centre of Contemporary Art, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland
2004
Bunkier Sztuki, Cracow, Poland
Compilation 2112m2 Europe with H. Czerepok, Hainburg/Donau, Austria
Quartier 21, Museums Quartier, Vienna, Austria
2003
Venice 50th Biennale, Venice, Italy
V Krajowa Wystawa Mlodych, BWA, Wroclaw, Poland
2002
Dyploms 2002, CSW, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland
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Scholarships and residences
2010 Kunstverein Loitz, Germany
2009 Air Krems, Austria
2007 T-Mobile Studios, Vienna, Austria
2006 Schloß Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany
2004 KulturKontakt Artists in residence, Vienna, Austria
2003 Henkel Young Artists Prize, Vienna, Austria
2003 Konkurs im. E. Gepperta, First Price, BWA Wroclaw, Poland
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