Poland International

Poland International Opening night: 5 June 2015 from 6pm

6 June – 2 August 2015

The internet, freedom to travel and a cultural history of looking beyond country borders has led to recent generations of Polish artists engaging with international imagery and discourse.

The artists in this small group show, each reflect elements of global art history and contemporary critical theory. This exhibition brings work by emerging artists based in Poland to Northampton at a time when the town is home to the largest Polish population in the region.

In 2014 the artists Aditya Mandayam & Ada Pola quit their solo practices and metamorphosed into the Indo-Polish art-parasite Brud. Based in a slaughterhouse in central Warsaw, their two latest artworks are Kurz, an analog cryptocurrency, & Szybolet, an open-source operating system meant to be 'installed in the presence of art'.

Agata Kleczkowska lives and works in Warsaw. Agata Kleczkowska is predominantly a painter working with oil on canvas but also works with mixed media and embroidery. Her imagery ranges from mountains to wolves, tigers and other beasts, hands, cubes, triangles with graphic, angular colour and overlays of arrows, dots and symbols.

Festen by Wojtek Doroszuk takes as its inspiration the paintings of the 17th century Flemish animalist artists, such as Frans Snyder, Jan and Ferdinand Van Kessel combined with post humanistic experimentation to envisage a future world in which the human has disappeared.

Magda Magdziarz, like Agata, uses boldly graphic forms in her work but takes a more abstract approach to her painting. A geometric form may resemble a quartered constructivist head wearing a hat but a fluid flourish of paint disrupts its plane or creates a backdrop. Her palette ranges from primary, bold blocks to tertiary and earthy tones, frames, grids and interrupting flourishes.

Poland International will screen Gregor Rozanski's BLUE (#3B5998)2012. This project is based upon Derek Jarman's 1993 film Blue. In Gregor's work, Jarman's Yves Klein inspired shade of blue is replaced by Facebook's colour palette (#3B599 RGb 59, 89, 152) which Gregor has renamed International Facebook Blue. The film's soundtrack is a reconceptualisation of the original screenplay with a text generated by an artificial English voice simulator.

Admission is free More information on the project and information about NN can be found at: www.nncontemporaryart.org

Ends

Notes to editors:

NN is a contemporary art space in the centre of Northampton.

Opening hours:

Wednesday–Saturday 11am–6pm Sunday 2–5pm Free admission

List of events:

From Art To Commerce

13 June 2015, 11am–1pm / How to use social media

4 July 2015, 11am–1pm / Who is your market and audience?

From Art To Commerce is a regular workshop at NN for artists and makers at all stages of their career. Run by NN's Development Director Tracey Clarke, each session has a particular business focus from business modelling to marketing and finance. For further information contact Tracey at Tracey@NNContemporaryArt.org

Write Club

9 July 2015, 7pm

Write Club is for anyone wanting to brush up on their art writing from artist statements to critical texts, get together for peer critique over a coffee in the Café. This session will look at artist statement writing. For further information contact Catherine Hemelryk,Catherine@NNContemporaryArt.org.

Drop in Creative Workshop: Post-It Dictionary with Ania Bas

12 July 2015, 2–5pm 26 July 2015, 2–5pm

Post-It Dictionary is an invitation to co–create a Polish-English and English-Polish visual dictionary. Using low-fi materials (pencils and Post-Its) you are invited to contribute words, phrases, themes and categories as well as visuals with artist Ania Bas.

Crit Group

16 July 2015, 7pm

NN hosts the Crit Group for artists at all stages of their career to come together to discuss their work in progress.

NN is supported by: Arts Council England Northampton Borough Council Northampton County Council Northamptonshire Community Foundation The University of Northampton

For further information please contact:

Danielle Macleod

Marketing Assistant, NN, Number Nine Guildhall Road, Northampton NN1 1DP, UK E: Marketing@NNContemporaryArt.org T: 01604 638944