June 10 - January 9, 2023
Rotunda Projects: Monika Grzymala
Monika Grzymala (b. 1970, Zabrze, Poland) is a Berlin-based artist whose work takes two-dimensional drawing and explodes it into three-dimensions, energetically navigating and disrupting each unique space. Grzymala’s work challenges the very definition of drawing and the nature of categorizing artworks - where does drawing end and sculpture begin? What are drawings made from, and how do we experience them?
Grzymala frequently works in adhesive tape, handmade washi paper, and a wide range of other materials to create site-specific installations that not only shape our physical surroundings but stretch our minds about the boundaries and definitions of art. Grzymala’s work has been exhibited at MoMa and The Morgan Library in New York City, the Rekjavik Art Museum in Iceland, the 18th Biennale of Sydney Australia and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany, amongst others.
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Exhibition Programs
Artist
Curators
Artist
Monika Grzymala
Berlin-based installation artist Monika Grzymala has studied stone sculpting and restoration, as well as visual arts at various German universities. The main theme of Grzymala’s work is the line and drawing in three-dimensional space. In her installations, the artist uses various materials: adhesive tape, paper, wire, and even living trees. The creations are always adapted to the exhibition site, connecting different visible and non-visible aspects, in short, using structures of tape and site-specific drawings to transform the space into a new cosmos. The sculptural interventions seem to twist and reconfigure rectilinear space, endowing it with a new and vibrant, organic and expressive potential, much as a dancer might transform the space through which she moves. The tangled lines that Grzymala stretches through her installations gather and disperse, curve around, rise and fall. Each ephemeral installation is described by the kilometers of tape that make visible the physical and mental process of creation. The spatial drawings are delicate, transient, and almost ethereal, but also balanced out by a feeling of persistent sense, materiality, and gesture.
Grzymala has received several awards and grants, and her work has been exhibited at the Drawing Center in New York, the Drawing Room in London, the Tokyo Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the 18thBiennale of Sydney, the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, the Reykjavik Art Museum, and other galleries and institutions around the world.
Monika Grzymala
Berlin-based installation artist Monika Grzymala has studied stone sculpting and restoration, as well as visual arts at various German universities. The main theme of Grzymala’s work is the line and drawing in three-dimensional space. In her installations, the artist uses various materials: adhesive tape, paper, wire, and even living trees. The creations are always adapted to the exhibition site, connecting different visible and non-visible aspects, in short, using structures of tape and site-specific drawings to transform the space into a new cosmos. The sculptural interventions seem to twist and reconfigure rectilinear space, endowing it with a new and vibrant, organic and expressive potential, much as a dancer might transform the space through which she moves. The tangled lines that Grzymala stretches through her installations gather and disperse, curve around, rise and fall. Each ephemeral installation is described by the kilometers of tape that make visible the physical and mental process of creation. The spatial drawings are delicate, transient, and almost ethereal, but also balanced out by a feeling of persistent sense, materiality, and gesture.
Grzymala has received several awards and grants, and her work has been exhibited at the Drawing Center in New York, the Drawing Room in London, the Tokyo Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the 18thBiennale of Sydney, the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, the Reykjavik Art Museum, and other galleries and institutions around the world.
Rosamund Garrett
Dr Rosamund Garrett is the Chief Curator at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Born in the United Kingdom, Rosamund gained her undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, before joining The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, for her MA (2011-12), and PhD (2012-2016). There she specialized in the art of Northern Europe in the Late Medieval and Renaissance period. Dr Garrett has worked in various museum positions in the UK including The National Trust and The Courtauld Gallery in London, working primarily with European Art and global contemporary art. In November 2018, Dr Garrett moved to Memphis. Here, she has worked on exhibitions including Power & Absence: Women in Europe, 1500 - 1680, Mona Hatoum: Misbah, and On Christopher Street: Transgender Portraits by Mark Seliger.
Chief Curator
Rosamund Garrett
Dr Rosamund Garrett is the Chief Curator at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Born in the United Kingdom, Rosamund gained her undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art, before joining The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, for her MA (2011-12), and PhD (2012-2016). There she specialized in the art of Northern Europe in the Late Medieval and Renaissance period. Dr Garrett has worked in various museum positions in the UK including The National Trust and The Courtauld Gallery in London, working primarily with European Art and global contemporary art. In November 2018, Dr Garrett moved to Memphis. Here, she has worked on exhibitions including Power & Absence: Women in Europe, 1500 - 1680, Mona Hatoum: Misbah, and On Christopher Street: Transgender Portraits by Mark Seliger.
Program Recordings
Resources
The 901 Black American Portraits Soundtrack
Listen to a soundtrack of Memphis music that exemplifies Black Love, Power, and Joy. The 901 Black American Portraits Soundtrack celebrates the vibrant legacy and future of Black musicians in the city of Memphis. This playlist was curated by Jared “Jay B” Boyd, a Memphis-based multimedia artist, journalist, DJ, and on-air personality.
MCA Exhibition Questionnaire
Help us generate the fullest picture possible of the MCA experience.
Submitting a questionnaire, which includes a request for an image of an artwork, is essential to be considered for part of the exhibition.
Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?
The American art theorist Linda Nochlin (1931-2017) posed this question as the title of a pioneering article in 1971. This essay was considered one of the first major works of Feminist art history, it has become a set text for those who study art internationally, and it is influential in many other fields.