NATALIA LL and RYSZARD WASKO 

YESTERDAY IS TODAY 

11.09.2020 - 30.10.2020 

Vernissage: 11.09.2020, 15:00 

In September, Gallery aKonzept will show the works of two outstanding neo-avant-garde artists, Natalia LL and Ryszard Wasko. Their work along with their philosophical ideas have been part of the Polish progressive art scene since the 1970s and are now regarded as legendary. 

They belonged to two different circles important to Polish and European conceptual art in the 1970s. Natalia LL Natalia LL comes from Wrocław, where she and Andrzej Lachowicz, Zbigniew Dłubak and Antoni Dzieduszycki were founding the Permafo-Gallery, which paved the way for a whole new generation of artists. 

Ryszard Wasko, on the other hand, was active in the Workshop of the Film Form (Warsztat Formy Filmowej) in Łódź where he, alongside Józef Robakowski, Wojciech Bruszewski, and others, had a profound influence on media art in the fields of film, photography, and video. Ryszard Wasko also created the huge international exhibition project “Construction in Process” from 1981, for which such outstanding artists as Richard Nonas, Dennis Oppenheim, Sol LeWitt, and many others came to Łódź to support the Solidarność movement. 

At the early stages of their artistic careers, both artists participated in such prestigious events as Paris Youth Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Sao Paulo Biennale, and Documenta in Kassel. For artists behind the Iron Curtain, participation in these exhibitions was a door opener to international careers. 

Natalia LL and Ryszard Wasko were supported by the most important museums in Poland: the National Museum in Wrocław and the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. The purchase of their early works in the case of the museum in Łódź must be seen as a continuation of the ideas of the most important Polish avant-garde artists before 1939: Katarzyna Kobro and Władysław Strzemiński - founders of the museum - both had participated in a workshop held by Kasimir Malevich after the Russian Revolution. From this perspective, it may be stated that the committed artistic and pedagogical pursuits of Natalia LL and Ryszard Wasko over the last 50 years perfectly fit the radical and internationally recognized works of artists from Moscow, Vitebsk, Łódź, Wrocław, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, and Dessau. 

Over the past decades, the works of Natalia and Ryszard have always been an integral part of the latest developments of the neo-avant-garde. Natalia embodies early feminist approaches with her photos, films, and performances, while Ryszard continues his exploration of the structure of film, video, and photography, transferring them into drawings, paintings, and even sculptures. This intertwining of lives and artistic work, as can be seen through Natalia and Ryszard’s careers, are preserved in the collecting and exhibition activities of Gallery aKonzept. 

Andrzej Paruzel