Adam Niklewicz was born in Poland and now lives and works in North Haven, CT. He earned his BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in from the State University of New York at Purchase. His work has been featured and discussed in ARTnews, Art New England, The New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Modern Painters Magazine, The Huffington Post, and the Nation, among others. In Poland, he has been featured in Artpunkt, Exit, Format and Obieg magazines. He has shown at such venues as Real Art Ways, The New Britain Museum of American Art, The Stamford Museum, Black & White Gallery, FiveMyles, Slag Gallery, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Galerie fur Landschaftskunst (Hamburg, Germany), Gallery of Contemporary Art (Opole, Poland), Zacheta (Warsaw, Poland) and Arte Laguna Prize 2014 (the Arsenale, Venice, Italy). Today we share a selection of his photographic work, as well as his video titled, Dancing Shoes.
BAKED, 2015
MONUMENT TO BORSCHT, 2009
CALLE LUNGA, 2010
Niklewicz’s work is shaped by his ongoing emigrant experience. It blends together the visual vocabulary of the artist’s Polish childhood with American commercial and pop-cultural iconography. Quite often the mixture assumes the form of conceptual photography and is given to paradoxes, absurdities, and (perhaps) some humor.
MY DINNER WITH MARIAN, 2011
POEM, 2015
SAILOR, 2005
LOST ‘EM AGAIN THIS MORNING, 2012
WAVE, 2008
TIRE DRAWING (or a Decision to Turn Around Rendered in Fresh Snow by a Motorist Who Entered the Wrong Street), 2015
Niklewicz’s work thrives on surprise and plays with de-contextualization. The objects of his attention are quite ordinary. These are tables, chairs, plates and a host of other items that have a role to play in the network of daily experiences that define the practical world. Niklewicz stands back and assumes a detached view of the objects attempting to discover new and secret aspects of reality by making obvious things odd and finding playful qualities along with clear and palpable symbolism. Such contemplative detachment translates into absurd situations suspended of practicality but with healthy dose of irony and humor – all communicated through mediums ranging from sculpture, video, installation and conceptual photography.
– Tatyana Okshteyn, Funding Director, Black & White Gallery / Project Space
DISPARATE NO MORE, 2014 / There were two items on my shopping list last night: sour cream and pencil tip erasers. The sheer chance that put them on the same list has brought the two together.
ONUCE, 2012 / A popular and effective way of dealing with extreme winters of my Polish childhood involved newspapers wrapped around feet serving as socks.
UNTITLED, 2008 / One day, during my high school for the arts years, I spread orange oil paint over a slice of bread, and ate a good chunk of it. This adolescent act was a measure of my fascination with painting (and through it, with art in general). I recreated that “action” now, to reaffirm the then act of commitment.
RITUAL, 2010
SOMETIME LAST JANUARY I AWOKE IN THE MORNING WITH MY HAND UP, 2005
NO TITLE, 2014
To view more of Adam’s work, please visit his website.