Opening reception: March 2nd | 5pm–7pm

Jack Fischer Gallery is pleased to present relic a solo exhibition by Larissa Nowicki. In this exhibition, the artist shows a series of hand-woven pieces made out of sliced pages from found books.

Nowicki's work considers the ways in which culture and meaning are exchanged. Reflecting on her time spent moving between New York, London and California, she has been contemplating the ways in which ideas and information are shared between places, particularly through the movement of familiar objects. Books and textiles, although inanimate, can be fluid and movable, susceptible and responsive. Both are capable of communicating complex ideas through their design, content, and structure. These items travel through time and traverse borders which separate diverse cultures. For the series presented in this exhibition, the artist has pulled pages and images from broken books found in a multitude of cities across the United States and Europe. These books which have languished or fallen apart are imbued with new meaning as they are repurposed. Within Nowicki's practice, all aspects of the book, from the visible exterior to the hidden binding, are considered as the artist's medium. Through material juxtaposition, hand sewing, and weaving, the books are transformed into cloth-like works of art. The new pieces, no longer communicative through text, articulate new meaning through symbolic and cultural cues long associated with textiles. 

Weaving as a method within a fine art practice further reinforces these ideas. Through it's “right “side (front) and “wrong” side (back) we are faced with the weaver's paradox—two sides in opposition, both essential to the woven structure. As an engendered practice we cannot avoid feminist art history and interpretations of revisionist art histories in defiance of the patriarchal tradition in art. Cutting the second hand books is a disruptive action while weaving serves as a reparative response to the initial phase of her practice. The vertical lines of the warp are intersected by the horizontal lines of the weft creating visual effects of movement, shifts in color and texture as a metaphor for the intersection of ideas, culture, feminism, and defiance.

Larissa Nowicki (b. 1971 in Bayonne, NJ) holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master’s in Art and Design from the Royal College of Art. Her work has been exhibited across the US and abroad, such as at the Man & Eve Projects in London, UK; Maison Particuliere in Brussels, Belgium; James Fuentes Gallery, The Katonah Museum of Art, in New York, NY; The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, MO. She was recently awarded her second residency at the prestigious Josef and Annie Albers Foundation in Bethany, Connecticut and was the winner of the 2011 Pulse Prize in Miami, FL. She currently lives and works in London and is a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art.