Several years ago, Polish photographer Kacper Kowalski turned his back on his career in architecture and began a new pursuit taking photographs from a paraglider or a gyrocopter at around 500 feet above the central European landscape. This beautiful observation of nature’s seasonal transformations is part of a series documenting the onset and experience of winter from above. (At The Curator in Chelsea, through Dec 17th).
Polish painter Paulina Olowska’s series of female figures suggest strong personalities; this shadowy character is based on gardener Valerie Finnis, who confessed to having once put plants before people. (At Metro Pictures in Chelsea through Dec 22nd).
Sharon Lockhart, Milena, Jaroslaw, 2013, three framed chromogenic prints, 50 ¾ x 40 ¾ inches, 2014.
“We cannot live alone.” “We need you.” “We are sick of our own similar faces.” These pleas and more come from the central actor in Yael Bartana’s riveting trilogy about a Polish leader who implores the over 3 million Jews who lived in Poland prior to WWII to return and transform 40 million Poles. Here, returnees establish a Kibbutz-like compound that looks uncomfortably like a concentration camp as they sit to learn Polish words like ‘Freedom.’ (At Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery through May 4th).
Yael Bartana, Mary Koszmary (Nightmares), one channel video and sound-installation, 16mm transferred to DVD color/sound, 10:50 min, 2007.
