Monika Grzymala

MONIKA GRZYMALA (German, born 1970 in Poland) is an artist who draws in three dimensions.

After completing a training in stone carving and restauration, she studied Visual Arts and Sculpture at Universities in Karlsruhe, Kassel and Hamburg. At Central Station in Kassel Grzymala founded Stellwerk in 1996, an experimental exhibition space in the former waiting room at track 8 where often performance events took place.

At this stage of her studies she turned from figurative sculpting towards abstract forms of expression and spatial drawing that she describes as ‘a hand lead thought that defines its own space’.

The artist makes what she calls ‘architectural interventions’: site specific, large scale, temporary, often ephemeral installations based on the language of the line. She works with a wide array of materials, including handmade washi paper, various adhesive tapes, lead wire, confetti, leaves and limbs, and other linear objects found in the surrounding land.

Monika Grzymala has participated in a wide range of group exhibitions for example, A Serpentine Gesture and Other Prophecies at FRAC Fonds Régional d‘Art Contemporain de Lorraine, Metz (France 2011, with purchase for the Collection by FRAC 49 Nord 6 Est), The End of the Line: attitudes in drawing at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, The Bluecoat Liverpool, City Museum Bristol and Fruitmarket Edinburgh (UK 2009), Freeing the Line at Marian
Goodman Gallery, New York (USA 2006) and LineAge at The Drawing Center, New York (USA 2005). Projects in 2010 also include participations in the group exhibitions On Line. Drawing through the Twentieth Century at MoMA the Museum of Modern Art New York (USA), Washi Made in Germany at TAM Tokyo Art Museum (Japan), a building created by the architect Tadao Ando in Tokyo Sengawa.

Solo exhibitions and site specific projects include Polyeder/Polyhedron at FRAC Lorraine 49 Nord 6 Est in Metz (France 2011), Raumzeichnung at Sumarria Lunn Gallery London (UK 2011), Weiss in Weiss at Marstall Ahrensburg (Germany 2011), Ruptures at The Drawing Room, London (UK 2009), Dual with Kelly Wood at Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver (Canada 2008), Und at Griffelkunst, Hamburg (Germany 2008), Off Road at Islip Art Museum

The Center for Experimental Art on Long Island, New York (USA 2006) and One Degree Above Zero at the skating rink in Hamburg (Germany, 2000). Colours and Other Site-Specific Works was on view as artist in residence-project at Chinati / Donald Judd Foundation in Marfa, Texas (USA 2008).

Between 2008 and 2010 Monika Grzymala has developed two large scale site specific installations with handmade washi paper, commissioned by the Dian Woodner Collection for the private residence in Manhattan, New York. Thisproject is documented in an artist book with eponymous title Up There Up Here and published by the collector and artist in February 2011.

An edition of 9 lithographs entitled The Grey Matter for the 30 cm x 30 cm Project by Robert Arber Art Editions in Marfa Texas (USA), and Linea, an edition of paper objects by Griffelkunst Hamburg (Germany) were published in 2010 as well. Furthermore the monograph Monika Grzymala 11 works 2011–2000, beside the limited Collector‘s Edition Aerial I–V (From the Series Making Paper), are both available since Fall 2011 at Hatje Cantz publishers.
Current projects are: a site specific installation for 18th Biennale of Sydney All Our Relations with Aboriginal artists and papermakers (Australia, June 27 – September 16, 2012), a collaboration with the performance artist Michiel Alberts (Germany/Belgium 2012), a large scale spatial drawing for Out of Line at The Darling Foundry in Montreal (Canada, 2013).

Her solo show Aerial is on view at Crone Gallery in Berlin between February 12 and March 17, 2012. The debut exhibition presents on both floors of the gallery a new installation and works with handmade paper.

Monika Grzymala lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

contact:
www.t-r-a-n-s-i-t.net
www.cronegalerie.de