Maria Loboda, The Tempest, Installation view
Ludlow 38, New York, 2012
Photograph courtesy of the gallery

Maria Loboda named her solo exhibition at Ludlow 38 in downtown Manhattan, The Tempest, long before Hurricane Sandy arrived. However, the show opened after the hurricane flood many of Chelsea’s top galleries and knocked out the power of the city south of 32nd Street. Then why “The Tempest” you ask? Loboda, is currently participating in the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Bushwick, Brooklyn and the exhibition is her site specific installation and narrative interpretation of what she deems as public and private space. Originally born in Poland, the artist spent much of her life in Germany and studied with Mark Leckey at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, graduating in 2008. Her work is responsive to not only an environment she happens to be in, but one that she also seems to translate from an internal, personal space. In a text provided on the occasion of The Tempest, a dialogue between Maria Loboda and curator Clara Meister, the two discuss the catalyst to this project being the General Electric Building on Lexington Avenue and 51st Street. For Loboda, the building struck a nerve due to it’s original function of housing the offices of a large company but also the visual, architectural aesthetics relating to the New York period of Art Deco. Many international artists responded to the period of Art Deco in New York, specifically Tamara de Lempicka, another artist of Polish descent who was actively making paintings in the 1920s and 1930s, first in Paris, where the style originated and then later gained popularity in the US. Loboda has chosen to focus on actress Greba Garbo who moved to New York after retiring from acting in the 1940s. This moment and desire to change one’s perceptive role in life and/or the public realm forced Garbo to adapt to often shielding her face from incessant photographers which anything she could find including umbrellas, her coat, a handkerchief, etc. As Loboda states in her interview with Clara Meister,

“Photographers started looking for her–back then it was even called ‘Garbo Watching’–but every time they got close, she covered her face. She did not allow people to take what they thought they could demand. She did not want to be looked at anymore. Once she said that she wanted to be left alone. It is fascinating to think of these moments like sculptures.“

The result of this interest and obsession, is evident in the large umbrella, with a crystallized black and grey Art Deco pattern, propped in the back corner of the gallery. The umbrella blocks part of the space, including a doorway that normally leads to a back room. The purposeful obstruction is both a curious visual ploy lending itself to spatial distraction and also a symbol, that in this case pertains to privacy, shelter and a desire to shield one’s identity.

Maria Loboda, The Tempest, Installation view
Ludlow 38, New York, 2012
Photograph courtesy of the gallery

Hers is a journey of visual subtlety. Also in the gallery are two, small, square collages. In one, the subject matter contemplates his property and lush green garden. In the second, he is seen having crossed the wall (or boundary of his own making) and delves into the greenness. Loboda uses a language of forms and symbols that as if with a few words, communicates a deeper sense of a pragmatic resolution to longing.

Maria Loboda, The Tempest, Installation view
Ludlow 38, New York, 2012
Photograph courtesy of the gallery

The moments when people are doing nothing
just drinking tea
The boring country life
at the country house
and at this time
their lives are collapsing.

Maria Loboda chose this fragmented text before exterior and interior literally were merged on the isle of Manhattan by Hurricane Sandy. The sense of collapse can be emotional, psychological, or literal in definition. What The Tempest does is offer a conceptual take on a very human desire; one of balance.

Maria Loboda, The Tempest, Installation view
Ludlow 38, New York, 2012
Photograph courtesy of the gallery

After a yearlong residency at Ludlow 38, The Tempest is also the final exhibition curated by Clara Meister. Congrats to Clara on a successful year. Be sure to read my interview with her in Frieze d/e online.

Ludlow 38 is the visual art gallery of The Goethe Institute New York and all exhibitions are sponsored by Mini.

More soon.
xo