First U.S. Exhibition for Jerzy Zielinski To Open at Oko, 4/10-5/4

In paintings that conflate the aesthetics of Communist propaganda with the signifiers of Pop Art and tropes of Art Nouveau, Polish artist and poet Jerzy Ryszard "Jurry" Zielinski (1943-1980) deployed an esoteric series of symbols to explore life's grand themes of national identity, religion, eroticism and politics. Strategically paring his palette down to flattened areas of red, white, blue and green, and working with a visual language of repeated emblems, Zieli?ski departed radically from the somberness expected of Polish art. One of the rare Polish artists to take up the Pop Art style during the 1960s and '70s, he made works suggesting a sly reverse psychology and replete with potent anti-Establishment messages. Owing to its radical intent, Zielinski's work has long been expunged from the Polish art historical mainstream and is only just receiving recognition internationally for its relationship to the wider tides of postwar art.

Beginning April 10, 2013, Oko will open the very first American presentation devoted to this pivotal figure. Jerzy "Jurry" Zielinski will fill the gallery's vest pocket-sized East Village space with three key paintings that together offer a condensed first look at Jurry Zielinski's oeuvre. The exhibition, which will remain on view through May 4^th, was organized in collaboration with Galeria Zderzak, Krakow, and the artist's widow Wieslawa Zielinska - Janiak.

For Zielinski the distilled language of Pop Art was an ideal vehicle toward a distinctive personal style that was shot through with witty, incisive comments on the dilemmas of the age. While Pop Art in the West was primarily concerned with consumer culture and mass media, Zieli?ski's version investigated an all-together more austere set of political concerns. The purposeful simplification and reliance upon stylized symbols in Zieli?ski's canvases functioned in direct opposition to Poland's national doctrine of Social Realism, which informed 'acceptable' painting both before and after the Stalinization of Communist Poland. Appropriating the familiar iconography of Communist propaganda posters, Zieli?ski converted the power of a limited visual syntax into social critique.

Oko will present three works that address a selection of these symbols. In Ironia (Irony, 1970) an eye is fashioned of a silhouetted eagle, the national symbol of Poland and a frequent stand-in of the state. This bird crosses over a sun, beneath which sits the fraction of a toothy, smiling mouth. Polls Akt Malzenstwa (Polish Act of Marriage, 1974) features the faces of a man and a woman situated as the feet of a woman's bent body in which the crux of a crucifix serves as the cleft of her ass. In Zaspokajanie (Meeting, 1969), the silhouette of an upturned face waits to catch a small drop of blood poised to fall from the top of the painting. Each of these works, despite their graphic simplicity, functions as the messenger of multiple meanings.

With Jerzy "Jurry" Zielinski, Oko will introduce Zielinski to a broader audience with works that testify to the enduring power of his art, even in this Post-Cold War era. This project provides a prelude to a larger exhibition devoted to the artist, scheduled to open at Luxembourg & Dayan London in October 2013.

Oko is open to the public Thursday through Saturday, 12-6 and by appointment.