New beginnings

Basel | ArtRegion: Basel - Oberrhein

balzer projects

Alicja Gaskon: New beginnings

4. Juni – 16. Juli 2016

balzer projects is pleased to present Polish artist Alicja Gaskon in her first solo show in Basel. The title of the show “new beginnings” is deeply reflective of her overall artistic programme. In this exhibition, she explores concepts of unpredictability and transitions, sometimes foreseeable, but always with constant shifts into new directions, both circumstantial and psychological. Embedded within is the sense of a yearning for a new start, a new chance, and the experience of impermanence.

Gaskon sets the premises for a confrontation with philosophical questions: why we sometimes force new beginnings in order to re-direct our lives and decide that something has to be overcome, declared obsolete and a thing of the past. Yet, there are those changes, which we cannot control. They have a tremendous impact on our lives and bare sometimes a frightening uncanniness; we tend to live with but not necessarily reflect upon them, as they might negatively penetrate our comfort zone.

Until most recently, Alicja Gaskon’s work seemed minimalist at first sight, contradicting and opposing everything that recollects the act of creation. Her latest body of work, however, reflects a new approach, where her artistic practice is as much about the process, as it is about the result. Most often she seeks to invoke the idea of painting itself,
simultaneously delicate and monumental, heavy and light, formalist in a way, but minimalist in content and appearance.

This new exhibition includes sculptures, wall reliefs of curious, meticulous forms and materials. Also on view are works on recycled fabric and canvas. Many of the artworks in the exhibition are about developing a formal vocabulary, which fuels Gaskon to produce an ever-evolving environment that allows for this sort of return to the center of a concept (or to the center of the self). In “new beginnings,” Gaskon utilizes forms and materials that appear contextually foreign. When put together, they form a completely new artistic path.

14 June, 20-22h: Open House Gallery Night
13 – 18 June, 11-18h: Special Gallery Hours during Art Basel


Besondere Öffnungszeiten

During Art Basel: 13 – 18 June, 11 – 18h

balzer projects
Wallstrasse 10
4051 Basel