Strong Winds May Exist
SEPTEMBER is excited to present *Strong Winds May Exist*, Annie Bielski’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. The opening reception is June 12, 2021 from 5 PM until sunset. SEPTEMBER has included Bielski’s work in several group shows, presented a solo booth at NADA NY together, and in early 2020, invited her to be in our program as an ALWAYS artist. Bielski’s upcoming exhibition includes large-scale mixed media paintings, works on paper, paintings that function as furniture for sitting, and artist drawing displays.
If the work of Annie Bielski could speak, it might ask, *What If? What if it was made without thread? What if the balloon was never lost? What if it snowed in the desert?*
The myriad possibilities that Bielski connects to arrive at a finished painting reflect the experience of life as a combination of happenstance and intention, discovery and decision. Bielski’s work inspires the sense that her receptivity to life and its offerings lead to the irreproducible nature of each piece. She pulls materials from what is around her—curtains, clothes, junk—and with democratic interest reorients them into new forms that hang, overlay, protrude and reveal. The delight of Bielski’s bright palette and animated forms marry the awkwardness of her wrinkled fabric and crooked stitches. All are inclusively arranged and contingent on one another. Such is the natural order and disorder of life that Bielski so beautifully harnesses. *Strong Winds May Exist* is a love letter to whatever comes our way and what we choose to make of it.
*A road sign said STRONG WINDS MAY EXIST*
*An angel came to me with a most holy order to stop everything and rearrange the room again*
*When I move the couch for the fourth time I feel at peace knowing that I am making a large drawing, exercising, avoiding my deadline, my death, and staying out of hell all at once*
*I'm good*
*I stand at a distance to look at what I have done*
*In my studio I stand too close so that I can't see much of anything,*
*like the surface of the painting is the surface of my face*
*When X says Y knows more about Z than Z knows about Z*
*X means that Y has observed Z from angles Z will never know*
*Z feels sad when she remembers she can't see the back of her own head like X, Y, and the others can*
*Z feels vulnerable and exposed*
*I attached a piece of rope to a piece of canvas with sewing pins, and spent time rearranging on the surface*
*It could still move*
*The weather man, my father, closes forecast emails with*
Subject To Change, Without Warning, For No Apparent Reason
Annie Bielski (b. 1990, Toledo, OH) received her BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her MFA from University at Buffalo (SUNY). Bielski is an artist, writer, and performer. Bielski’s paintings, sculpture, and video have been exhibited at Subliminal (NYC), NADA (New York), Burning in Water (NYC), Paris London Hong Kong (Chicago), High Tide (Philadelphia), Motel (Brooklyn), Lodos Gallery (Mexico City), The Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (Portland), and the University at Buffalo, among others. Bielski has performed at SEPTEMBER, Basilica Hudson, The Spotty Dog, The Museum of Modern Art, Coustof Waxman, Allen & Eldridge NYC, Rachel Uffner Gallery, CANADA, and elsewhere. She has collaborated with musician Jenny Hval and performed across the US and Europe. Her work and performances have been covered by Art News, Hyperallergic, MTV, The New York Times, among others. Bielski writes for the Creative Independent, and has done special projects with Virginia Commonwealth University, University at Buffalo and Fort Makers. Bielski lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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