PAWEL WOJTASIK
Biography
Born in Lodz, Poland
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and Guilford, CT, United States
Education
1996
Yale University, M.F.A
1994
SUNY Empire State College, B.A.
Selected Exhibitions and Screenings
2009
Mass MoCA, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (April – Feb. 2010)
Videoformes, Installation in Clermont-Ferrand, France (March)
Galerie Maisonneuve, Paris, France (solo)
2008
Martos Gallery, New York, United States (solo)
Sonic Self, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, United States
Summer Exhibition, Martos Gallery, New York, United States
Liste '08, Basel, Switzerland
Considering the Monuments: Video Art from the East Coast, Urban Culture Project, Kansas
City, MO, United States
Oberhausen Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany
KRAJ, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Opole, Poland
Armory Show, New York, United States
Photo L.A., Los Angeles, United States
2007
SCANNERS Video Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, United States
Cine y Casi Cine, The Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain
:MINUS, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, United States
Video Dumbo, Dumbo Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY, United States
Reel NY, PBS/Thirteen, Public TV, New York Metro Area
50,000 Beds Project, Artspace, New Haven; Real Artways; The Aldrich Museum, CT
Blood Meridian, curated by David Hunt, Michael Janssen Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Pie in the Face, Jail Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Gray's Reef Film Festival, Savannah, Georgia
Connecticut Contemporary, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Hartford, CT, United States
Inaugural Screenings, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY, United States
Coercive Atmospherics, curated by David Hunt, Dumbo Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY, United States
Athens International Film Festival, Athens, Ohio, United States
Collectives of Irrepressible Cinema(s), Orchard Gallery, New York, NY, United States
IMAGES Film Festival, Toronto, Canada
Why Look at Animals?, Artspace, New Haven, CT, United States
It Isn't Funny Anymore, Project 1981, L.I.C., NY, United States
2006
Prevailing Climate, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, NY, United States
Out of True, curated by M. Giovanotti & J. Korotkin, Design District, Miami, United States
Voom HD Lab Presents, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY, United States
POZA, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, United States (Oct-Jan 2007)
ANTIMATTER Underground Film Festival, Victoria, BC, Canada
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY, United States
Borderline Video Art Festival, Platform China gallery, Beijing, China
Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Chicago, IL, United States
Maui Film Festival, Hawaii
LOOP Fair, Barcelona, Spain
Digital Art Oxford, Oxford, England
San Francisco Cinematheque
San Francisco International Film Festival
Hypervision, Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT, United States
Rotterdam International Film Festival, part of Video Music 2: Electric Current
Alona Kagan Gallery, New York, NY, United States (solo)
The Studio Visit, Exit Art, New York, NY, United States
The Love Show, New Space Gallery, MCC, Manchester, CT, United States (co-curator)
2004
Cine y Casi Cine, The Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain
NADA (The New Art Dealers Alliance), Miami, Florida
No Return, Momenta Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, United States
Sziget Festival, Budapest, Hungary
Big America, Fish Tank Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, United States
Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, United States (solo)
The God Show, New Space Gallery, MCC, Manchester, CT, United States (co-curator)
2003
The Lightshow, Clocktower Art Space, Brooklyn, NY, United States
Cosmorama, Akus Gallery, E. CT State University, Willimantic, CT, United States
Cynthia Broan Gallery, New York, NY, United States
New Space Gallery, MCC, Manchester, CT, United States (solo)
2002
National Museum, Minsk, Belarus
8 Reflections on Time, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT, United States
Wyjscie Ewakuacyjne Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
1999
Artists Space, New York, NY, United States
Fellowships, Grants & Residencies
2007
Look and Listen, panelist, Robert Miller gallery, New York, NY, United States
2006
NYSCA Individual Artist Grant (Film & Video)
Yaddo, Janet Sloane endowed residency (Film), Saratoga Springs, NY, United States
VOOM HD Lab, New York, NY, United States (grant)
2005
LAB HD, New York, NY, United States (Artist-in Residence)
Yaddo, Newman's Own, Inc. endowed residency (Film), Saratoga Springs, NY
MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire
2004
The Outpost, Artist-in-Residence, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1999
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
1996
Edward Albee Foundation, Montauk, NY, United States
Bibliography
2008
Robert Shuster, "Pawel Wojtasik: 'Like a Shipwreck We Die Going Into Ourselves'", The Village
Voice, 09/03/08
POZA, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, catalogue
2007
Linda Yablonsky, "Hotel Rooms Become Overnight Stars", The New York Times, 07/08/07
David Wheelock, "Animals Exhibit Startles, Subverts", Yale Daily News, 2/13/07
2006
Claire Barliant, "The Aquarium", Artforum, 5/2006
Benjamin Genocchio, "International Perspectives on Being Polish", The New York Times,
December 3, 2006
Aaron Yassin, "Paradox of Perception: The Video Work of Pawel Wojtasik," New York Arts
Magazine, 5/2006
Benjamin Genocchio, "Love, Without Make-up", The New York Times, 4/9/06
Benjamin Genocchio, "The Mind's Eye", The New York Times, 3/19/06
2005
"Greater New York 2005", PS 1 Contemp. Art Center & MoMA, catalogue
Berta Sichel, "Terra Infirma", Proyecto Cultural de Castellon, Valencia, Spain
El Pais, Madrid, Spain, July 24, 2005
Vincent Meessen, "A Short History of Decay", F-18, HISK, Belgium
Edward J. Sozanski, "Philadelphia Inquirer", March 20, 2005
Todd Gibson, "Best of New York 2004", From The Floor
2004
"No Return", The New York Times, Holland Cotter, 10/1/04
"No Return", The New Yorker, 10/18/04
Balkon Magazine, Budapest, Hungary, 8/04, p. 43
"Cine y Casi Cine", The Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain, catalogue, 11/04
DVD Collection
2005
"Electric Current 2", DVD published by CollectiveEye, essay by Aaron Yassin
Filmography
WATERS OF NEW ORLEANS 360° Panoramic Video and Sound Installation
Work-in-progress
A collaboration with composer Sebastian Currier.
EXHIBITION:
MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), March 2009 – February 2010
LANDFILL 2-channel installation with surround sound
2007, HD Video, 10:35 (loop)
EXHIBITION:
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, April-May 2007
LANDFILL
2006, RT: 06:57, High-Definition video, Color
An investigation into the formation of a landfill, a potent symbol of consumer society, which unintentionally becomes a great earthwork.
SCREENINGS:
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY, Dec 2006
SCANNERS Video Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, NY, July 2007
San Francisco Cinematheque
PIGS single channel
2007, RT: 15 minutes, DV-24P, Color
Pigs reveling in their 'pig nature'- from quiet, tender moments to the wildness of a feeding frenzy. Re-evaluation of the commonly held views regarding these animals.
EXHIBITION:
Coercive Atmospherics, D.A.C. Dumbo Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY, March-May 2007
Michael Janssen Gallery, Berlin, Germany, April-May 2007
The Armory Show, New York, NY, March 2008
PIGS 4-channel projection
2006, DV-24P, 15 min (loop), Color
A total immersion in the life of pigs. Filmed on a farm in Las Vegas, Nevada.
SCREENING:
Monkey Town, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, 2006
NAKED
2005-2007, RT: 10:36, DV, color
A colony of naked mole rats studied at a major American university. The drama of overcrowding within a network of plastic tubes sometimes leads to violence, sometimes results in a show of tenderness.
SCREENED AT:
Art Basel/ Miami Beach, Florida, USA, 2005
San Francisco International Film Festival, California, USA, 2006
Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Chicago, IL, USA, 2006
Antimatter Film and Video Festival, Victoria, B.C., Canada, September 2006
Why Look at Animals?, Artspace, New Haven, CT, Feb 2007
Images Festival, Toronto, Canada, April 2007
Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, Ohio, April-May 2007
Jail Gallery, Los Angeles, November-December 2007
THREE CHIMNEYS
2006, RT: 04:03, DV, Black-and-white, a collaboration with Terry Berkowitz
A couple in a hotel room become obsessed with the idea that they are being watched.
EXHIBITED AT:
LOOP '06, Barcelona, Spain, 2006
50,000 Beds Project, RAW, Hartford, CT, July-September 2007
THE AQUARIUM
2006, RT: 22:15, High-Definition Video, color
Filmed in Alaska, Mystic, CT, and New York City, the piece contrasts footage of the primeval Arctic landscape with the claustrophobia of sea mammals living in aquariums. Questions are raised regarding the alluring spectacle of the aquarium vs. the reality of the destruction of ocean life
EXHIBITED/SCREENED AT:
Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, 2006
Alona Kagan Gallery, New York, NY, 2006 (solo exhibition)
Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT, 2006
Maui Film Festival, Hawaii, 2006
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY, 2006
Gray's Reef Film Festival, Savannah, Georgia, 2007
PBS, WNET-New York, broadcast as part of Reel NY Festival, July 2007
Images Festival, Toronto, Canada, 2007
FIREHOLE
2005-7, RT: 07:16, DV, color, single and two-channel
A car junkyard. The violence of car-crushing, cutting of rusted steel with a blow torch, of forklifts piercing cars' sides.
EXHIBITED AT:
Alona Kagan Gallery, New York, NY, USA, 2005
Sarah Nightingale Gallery, Southampton, NY, 2005
Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, 2007
DARK SUN SQUEEZE (single channel)
2003, RT: 10:09, DV, color, 2003
Filmed at a sewage treatment plant. A darkly meditative look at the steady churning of the machinery devised to process the end product of all human economies.
EXHIBITED/SCREENED AT:
Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain, 2004
Momenta Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA, 2004
Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, USA, 2004 (solo exhibition)
Kunstcentrum Netwerk gallery, Antwerp, Belgium, 2005
Greater New York 2005, PS1, New York, USA, 2005
Rotterdam International Film Festival, Part of Electric Current 2, Netherlands, 2006
San Francisco Cinematheque, USA, 2006
Platform China gallery, Borderline Video Art Festival, Beijing, China, 2006
Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, NY, USA, 2006
Oberhausen Film Festival. Oberhausen, Germany, 2008
ACT ONE, SCENE ONE
2004, RT: 03:45, DV, color
A coffee enema becomes an abstract flow of images.
SCREENED AT:
Scope Hamptons, Southampton, NY, USA, 2005
DARK SUN SQUEEZE (3 Channel)
2005, RT: 10:46 (Loop), DV, color
A large-scale view of the sewage processing environment. Total immersion in prima materia. The unexpected beauty of shit simultaneously attracts and repulses.
SUPERHEAP
2001-2005, RT: 17:45, DV, color
A two-channel juxtaposition of the madness of consumption / resulting mass of waste.
EXHIBITED AT:
Akus Gallery, Willimantic, CT, USA, 2004
Alona Kagan Gallery, New York, NY, USA, 2005
GARBAGE
2002, RT: 18 min., DV, color, 2002
Filmed at a garbage transfer station. The interminable flow and manipulation of trash. Sounds of seagulls feeding on human refuse contribute to the soundtrack.
SCREENED AT:
Proyecto Cultural de Castellon, Valencia, Spain, ("Terra Infirma", curated by Berta Sichel) 2005
SUPERMARKET
2001, RT: 12 min., DV, color
The intoxication of excessive consumption. The absurdity is accentuated by the fact that the piece was shot in negative.
EXHIBITED/SCREENED AT:
National Museum, Minsk, Belarus, 2002
Wyjscie Ewakuacyjne gallery, Warsaw, Poland, 2002
Cynthia Brown Gallery, New York, NY, USA, 2002
Newspace gallery, Manchester, CT, USA, 2003