Kacper Kowalski | Above

(San Anselmo, CA) – Garvey|Simon is pleased to present Kacper Kowalski: Above, on view April 25 through June 24, 2023. The exhibition features a selection of abstract aerial landscape photographs from Kowalski’s bird’s eye lens. All of the artist’s photographs are taken by hand from a self-piloted gyrocopter and observe his native Poland from a lofty perspective. Kacper Kowalski: Above follows his solo exhibition at San Francisco International Airport. A preview of the exhibition will be on view in our booth B-05 at Art Market San Francisco, April 20 –23! We hope to see you there.

Kowalski observes the macro-evolution of the Polish landscape as it is progressively shaped and morphed by its inhabitants. Seasons shift rapidly in riots of color and pattern, humans leave intricate tracks in barren slates of snowfall, and in his series, “Toxic Beauty,” large-scale industry spills supernatural plumes of ash and smoke into the atmosphere, producing a painterly tableau of texture and light. Witnessed from 500 feet above, these instances of time and change are flattened and compressed into two-dimensional cross-sections like a microscope’s slide. At once massive and miniature, Kowalski teases out the universality in the patterns of change, showing the intrinsic link between people and land. Kowalski’s most recent series, “Event Horizon,” includes aerial images of bodies of water in Northern Poland, near his Tricity home. At once violent and tranquil, ghostly orbs of thawed ice float in an endless abyss, and craggy masses of ice sheets gnash at the water. Taken from a much higher altitude, these photographs are not only landscapes, but visual containers for the experience of flight.

His work has been exhibited in hundreds of group and solo shows worldwide, and he has received numerous awards, including the World Press Photo award (three times), the Picture of the Year International POYi award (six times), and dozens of others. His first book, Side Effects, was published in 2014, OVER was self-published in 2017, followed by Arché in 2021. His most recent publication, Event Horizon, has received Sony’s World Photography Award, 2023 in the Landscape Catagory.

An opening reception for the solo exhibition will take place on April 27, 6–8pm at Garvey|Simon, 538 San Anselmo, CA 94960, 415-720-9252. Join us!