#18 Sammi Liu & Gunia Nowak

In this episode of the Art Bystander our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar meets with Sammi Liu of Tabula Rasa Gallery and Gunia Nowik of her namesake gallery to discuss the current state of the art world in Poland and China - and their participation at the group show CMA in Stockholm.

CMA (Contemporary Myths and Artifacts) is an ambitious project that brings together a group of international galleries and twenty-four artists to exhibit in a unique historical setting at Stockholms Stads Gasverk (Stockholms City Gashouse), built on Torsgatan in 1904. The exhibition focuses on contemporary artist practices that use the tradition of storytelling, myth making, and the artefact as tools to address current issues, ranging from human relationships, digital technologies, and AI to urgent ecological questions.

November 9th - 19th 2023

Regular opening hours: 12 am to 6 pm

Stockholm Gasverket, Torsgatan 22-24

Galleries:

Andréhn-Schiptjenko (FR)(SE)

Coulisse Gallery (SE)

Gunia Nowik Gallery (PL)

Piktogram Gallery (PL)

Tabula Rasa Gallery (CN)(UK)

Tabula Rasa Gallery is a leading contemporary art gallery founded by Sammi Liu in Beijing's 798 art district in 2015. In April 2021, Tabula Rasa Gallery opened its second space in Hoxton, London, providing a wider platform for artistic exchange globally.  The gallery name is Latin for 'blank state'. In philosophical discourse, it refers to the idea that our knowledge comes from experiences and education; we are all born in a Tabula Rasa state. We hope the exhibitions Tabula Rasa presents can subvert viewers’ preconceptions, creating conditions for fresh artistic experiments.

Gunia Nowik Gallery was opened in Warsaw, Poland in July 2021. The artists represented by GNG are its owner’s peers – artists born in the 1970s and 80s, including Agata Bogacka, Jakub Gliński, Katarzyna Korzeniecka, Anna Orłowska, Daniel Rycharski, and Iza Tarasewicz. Teresa Gierzyńska (born 1947), a feminist photographer, and Krzysztof Jung (1951–1998), a key member of Poland’s queer scene in the 1980s and 90s, enrich the program. However different, the artists’ voices all express a concern with the human condition in the modern world. GNG is committed to the Polish art scene but is also open to the international one. In 2023, the German sculptor Hannah Sophie Dunkelberg and the Ukrainian painter Sana Shahmuradova Tanska held solo shows and joined the gallery as represented artists, showing how GNG seeks to function as a bridge between the art scenes in Berlin, Warsaw, and Kyiv. Gunia Nowik is also co-founder of Hotel Warszawa Art Fair.