On view at Tempo Gallery in New York now, Alicja Kwade’s “Telos Tales” affords a hypnotic and sensory-heightening expertise of fabric, motion and time. Born in Poland and at the moment dwelling/working in Berlin, Alicja Kwade is a grasp at fusing nature, expertise, and perceptual glitches in a spread of fabric, and now together with her first solo exhibition at Tempo Gallery, presents new monumental sculpture and confounding glass works that aren’t what they first seem. It’s all knit along with a sound that can give guests even better pause.
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales. Tempo Gallery, 508 & 510 West twenty fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales. Tempo Gallery, 508 & 510 West twenty fifth Avenue, New York, NY (element)
The primary room holds 3 towering sculptures made out of black powder-coated metal, greenish patinated bronze, and large mirror-like stainless-steel tubes. Right here the “pure” and the “man-made” really feel like they’re caught mid-struggle in a three-dimensional tug-of-war, unclear which materials is evolving from or turning into the opposite. Suspended from the ceiling to levitate inside the branch-like buildings, stainless-steel pipes maintain glowing double-faced clocks of their interiors. The mirrored surfaces gently bend the reflection of “branches” on the surface however multiply into an infinity of duplications on the within – clock actions multiply, instructions reverse, and visually liquify.
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales. Tempo Gallery, 508 & 510 West twenty fifth Avenue, New York, NY (element)
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales at Tempo Gallery, 508 & 510 West twenty fifth Avenue, New York, NY
The tallest work, titled “Causa Materialis” reaches practically 22 ft tall, pushing past the primary ceiling of the gallery into one of many skylights, as if at the moment rising into its non permanent area. One other work, “Causa Formalis” actually pierces the left wall into the following room.
Alicja Kwade, PhaseChase, 2025
The subsequent room holds 6 unusual sculptures that first seem like completely clear. Created from stable K9 crystal glass, every resembles one thing between a damaged column and melting ice. Those that peer instantly excessive of any sculpture will uncover a shock – the bottom of every is a functioning clock thats picture warps right into a water-like illegibility, remaining invisible from every other angle.
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales at Tempo Gallery, 508 & 510 West twenty fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales at Tempo Gallery, 508 & 510 West twenty fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Alicja Kwade, SunderState VI (element), 2025
Alicja Kwade, SunderState VI (element), 2025
It was solely on my second go to (and alone) that one of the crucial magical parts of the exhibition turned obvious… and apparent as soon as seen: the sound. The big reflecting clocks within the first room aren’t simply synced to the time of day that it’s, they’re synced to one another – all the way down to the millisecond. It’s an impact and energy that ends in a exactly coordinated “tick” between the three clocks each second. Right here, time is each trapped and universally true. And as soon as you might be acclimated to that ticking sound, the second room feels noticeably silent. The glass works have an analogous clock motion however no sound by any means, inviting the expertise of weighted silence within the march of time.
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales. Tempo Gallery, 508 & 510 West twenty fifth Avenue, New York, NY (element)
Tempo Gallery produced a must-see 3-minute movie that captures the dizzying impact of the clock reflections, the works’ relationship and dialog with the town, and options commentary from each the artist and Tempo CEO Marc Glimcher. Watch right here.
Portrait of Alicja Kwade Photograph: Doro Zinn
Alicja Kwade’s “Telos Tales” is on view by August fifteenth, 2025. Verify the gallery web site for hours as typically the up to date galleries modify their hours in the summertime.
What: Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales
The place: Tempo Gallery, 508 & 510 W 25th St, New York, New York
When: Might 7 – Aug 15, 2025
All photographs: © Alicja Kwade, courtesy Tempo Gallery
