Anna Ostoya: J M Z

Anna Ostoya, digital collage, 2024. Courtesy the artist.

September 13 – December 13, 2024

PRESS: Texte Zur Kunst | Artforum Must See | Artist Interview (Mishkin Gallery Blog)

Mishkin Gallery is pleased to present a series of 15 paintings by Anna Ostoya, on view from September 13 through December 13, 2024. The paintings on display are derived from sketches that Ostoya made upon her arrival in New York City in 2008 of fellow passengers on the J, M, and Z lines along her commute between Brooklyn and Manhattan. After more than a decade in a drawer, the sketches became the basis for kaleidoscopic digital compositions filled with motifs appearing in existing works, for a book with the political philosopher Chantal Mouffe. For this series, Ostoya translates the digital compositions to oil on canvas. The artist avoided creating illustrations by simply “repainting” the digital images. Rather, she likens her approach to painting a sitting model or a still life—a search to depict depth, flatness, and contrasts of colors and textures. They also display a range of references, all of which have appeared in her previous works as painted or collaged elements. The result is a series of portraits that are at once intimate and removed, representational and surreal. These multifaceted images of individuals, all of whom occupy the shared public space of the subway, contend with fundamental political dimensions of identity and democracy.

Anna Ostoya: J M Z is co-curated by Mishkin Gallery’s Alaina Claire Feldman and Alexandra Tell. The exhibition is made possible by Friends of the Mishkin Gallery and the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College (CUNY).

Anna Ostoya (b. 1978 in Kraków, Poland) lives and works in New York. Her work has been shown at Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland; Tate St. Ives, United Kingdom; the 2015 Lyon Biennial, France; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Power Plant Toronto, Canada; the CCS Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Manifesta 7 Rovereto, Italy; Lisson Gallery, London, United Kingdom; and the Second Athens Biennial, Greece.

Ostoya has had solo exhibitions at Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland; La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France; CCA Kronika, Bytom, Poland; and with galleries: Bortolami, New York; tegenboschvanvreden, Amsterdam; and Silberkuppe, Berlin. She studied at the Parsons School in Paris, the Städelschule in Frankfurt, and the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York.

Booklet

On the occasion of our current exhibition, Anna Ostoya: J M Z, Mishkin Gallery publishes a free booklet containing six newly commissioned texts. Throughout her career, Ostoya has often translated between media, integrating found texts and images and collaborating with writers and thinkers. Following that, we invited several writers, artists, and musicians to respond to Ostoya’s series of paintings J M Z. The result is a wide-ranging collection of texts that encompass essay, poetry, and science fiction. The booklet continues Ostoya’s longstanding tradition of creative collaborations across genre. The booklet is designed by Olya Domoradova and includes texts by Moyra Davey, Mónica de la Torre, Lamin Fofana, Angie Keefer, Mark von Schlegell, and Alaina Claire Feldman and Alexandra Tell.

Moyra Davey works across genres of photography, film/video, and writing. She is the author of Index Cards, and editor of Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood. Her 2022 film Horse Opera screened at international film festivals including the Berlinale, and TIFF.

Mónica de la Torre is the author of seven poetry collections, including Pause the Document, forthcoming from Nightboat Books next spring. She teaches in the Creative Writing MFA at Brooklyn College.

Lamin Fofana is an electronic music producer, DJ, and artist living in New York City. He grew up in Sierra Leone and Guinea before moving to the United States.

Angie Keefer, born in Alabama, is an artist, writer, teacher, and publisher. She studied sculpture at Yale University, graduating in 1999. She currently lives and works in upstate New York.

Mark von Schlegell has been publishing experimental fiction, art criticism and theory since the 1990s. Born in New York, he lives between Germany and the U.S.

Alaina Claire Feldman is the Director and Curator of the Mishkin Gallery. Alexandra Tell is the Gallery Manager of the Mishkin Gallery. They are the co-curators of Anna Ostoya: J M Z.

Public Programs

Mishkin Gallery After Hours + Curator Tour
Monday, November 4, 2024
6-8pm
Our doors stay open late and exhibition curators Alaina Claire Feldman and Alexandra Tell lead a tour of Anna Ostoya: J M Z.