'Welcome to Paradise'-Anka Dabrowska Solo show, Crima'rt, Milan, Italy

24/03/11

Crima'rt is proud to present Welcome to Paradise, a solo exhibition from Anka Dabrowska, in collaboration with PayneShurvell Gallery, London.

Anka Dabrowska's new work defies categorization. Each piece is as much a sculpture as it is a painting, an architectural model, graffiti, ready-made or drawing – and it is as much about the experience of London or any other city as it is about Warsaw.

Born in Poland and now living in London, Dabrowska makes use of her position between cultures to respond to a sense of displacement common to the inhabitants of our contemporary metropolises.

Seemingly haphazard, her 'anti-structures' are actually based on dozens of trips and months of methodical research. Taking hundreds of photos and filling dozens of sketchbooks, Dabrowska documents the changing face of Warsaw's streetscapes in a living record of shop fronts, tower blocks, corporate branding and graffiti.

Mingling with her own personal recollections, Dabrowska's work incorporates her research into a creative re-imagining of her native city. A fragment of Wallpaper from an abandoned building becomes a shop front, while a photograph she took of a logo from an advertising hoarding becomes a literal wall - Dabrowska's sculptures mutate and transform in a colourful display of architectural alchemy.

Built from the disregarded wreckage of everyday life, Dabrowska combines cardboard, wood, garish plastics and concrete alongside documentary snapshots and bright sprayed graffiti. No material is too base and 'taste' is cast aside as consumerism and punk aesthetics collide.
Like her adopted city of London, Warsaw's architecture reflects it's turbulent history. Informed by this changing façade, Dabrowska examines the disparity between individual identity and collective memory. Although her work is intensely autobiographical, Welcome to Paradise moves beyond personal circumstances to reflect a shared experience of urban living.
Along with her 'anti-structures' Welcome to Paradise will also showcase her latest drawings.

Preview in the artist's presence.

Anka Dabrowska (b. 1979 Warsaw, Poland) graduated in 2003 from University of Northumbria in Newcastle where she attained her Masters in Fine Art with distinction.
She lives and works in London and has exhibited with solo show in London: PayneShurvell Gallery (2010), Sartorial Contemporary Art (2008), Seven Seven Contemporary Art Gallery (2005). Other attended group shows were:
A Bright and Guilty Place, PayneShurvell, Londra, 2009; Summer camp, Exile, Berlin, 2009; The Fleet Rises, Departure Gallery, Londra, 2009; blockhouse, Jealous Gallery, 2009; Material worlds, Royal London Hospital, Londra, 2008; Geography is a Flavour, August Art Gallery, 2007; For Peel, No More Grey Gallery, 2006.
Her works are in Tate Archive, Tate Britain, Seven Seven and international private collections.


tuesday - thursday
11-7 pm
wednesday - friday
11–4 pm
and by appointment

For further
information and
images,
please contact press@crimart.it


via Borgonuovo, 27
20121 Milano
t. +39.3486565404
info@crimart.it



With the sponsorship of:

Polish Consulate in Milan



Supported by:

British Council in England