Monika Grzymala

Sumarria Lunn Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Monika Grzymala. The artist will take over and re-articulate the entire space with a new installation. What begins as a drawing in tape will depart from the gallery walls to interact with the unique environment. Grzymala will focus primarily on the load bearing architectural formation at the centre of the gallery and then extend the work out to play with the arches that radiate from it and draw in the rest of the space as though suggesting an orbit around this central mass.

While her focus is largely abstract, the black lines of this installation cannot help but hold subtle resonance with the complex nets of architectural blueprints and design drawings. As with her commission for FRAC Lorraine in France the lines that leave the wall begin to suggest structures - going beyond mere architectural intervention to actually enclose and articulate space. Grzymala describes her installations in conventional units, but always considers the three dimensional drawings first in relation to the body. This humanising element to the work also relates back to the notion of architecture as a response to human proportions. There is a performative, process related element to the installation of the work but even after completion it continues to perform: As an ephemeral installation the work gradually succumbs to the will of gravity, its deterioration echoing humanity like some gigantic vanitas.

Monika Grzymala was born in Poland in 1970 and lives and works in Berlin. Solo exhibitions include Polyeder/Polyhedron, FRAC 49 Nord 6 Est Lorraine, Metz, France (2011), Weiss in Weiss, Marstall, Ahrensburg, Germany (2011), Ruptures, The Drawing Room, London (2009), Und, Griffelkunst, Hamburg (2008) and Off Road, Islip Art Museum, Long Island (2006). Group exhibitions include On Line. Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010), Washi Made in Germany, Tokyo Art Museum, Tokyo (2010), The End of the Line: Attitudes in Drawing at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, the Bluecoat Liverpool, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (2009), Kelly Wood and Monika Grzymala, Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver (2008) and Freeing the Line, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (2006). Monika Grzymala was artist in residence at the Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas (2008) and will be exhibiting a site specific installation for the 18th Biennale of Sydney in 2012.

Monika Grzymala