Nika Neelova, Olga Chernysheva, Adrian Pepe, Muhannad Shono

Fragments of Time Unending

3
.
03
 — 
23
.
04
.
2023
Curated by 
Sarah Daher

Artists: Olga Chernysheva, Nika Neelova, Adrian Pepe, Muhannad Shono, Alexander Ugay.

Many are the artists that make material of time: crystallizing its moments, packaging its boundlessness, illustrating its rhythm, or evidencing its circularity. In Fragments of Time Unending, NIKA Project Space’s debut exhibition, works by artists Muhannad Shono, Alexander Ugay, Nika Neelova, Olga Chernysheva, and Adrian Pepe coalesce around these and other qualities of time. At the core of this exhibition is the idea that time is both a constant and a subjective experience. It is the unifying thread that connects all human experiences, shaping our memories, relationships, and perceptions of the world. The works on display invite the viewer to consider their own experiences of time through a reflection on the transience of life. Ranging from the representational to the abstract, the exhibited works encompass a variety of media such as painting, sculpture, photography, and digital work.

I’m Sorry from Above, a work by Muhannad Shono, interprets moments of global trauma from a satellite distance in miniature form, throwing scale out of balance on multiple axes. Similarly, Alexander Ugay’s Obscurations make layered abstractions that begin at real world events and observations which are reconstructed as pinhole-camera inspired objects, then photographed in space. Time, here, is so skillfully deconstructed that it becomes invisible.Olga Chernysheva’s Flowers Riot makes use of explosive color to lend inanimate florals the violent quality of a riot. Nika Neelova’s reclaimed mahogany handrails take the shape of a dysmorphed infinite loop, playing doubly on the cyclical nature of time and its recycled materiality. These reshaped quotidian objects become reinterpreted as victims and agents of time.In the porous expanses of Adrian Pepe’s textile work, one can materially feel the reimagining of historically-significant craft and the time-ridden mechanics of physical labor.

Time is a ubiquitous concept that pervades our daily lives and experiences. It is a measure of duration and a marker of change, a fundamental aspect of the human experience and a source of inspiration for artists throughout history. This exhibition brings together works from a diverse group of artists who traverse time in innovative and thought-provoking ways.

Viewing Room

Checklist

The Mother Seed. 2020

Ink on paper. Framed
30 x 42

Children of Yam. 2017

Video. Edition 4 of 5 + 2 AP
4'51''

35.1655°N , 45.9896 °E. I’m Sorry from Above series. 2016

Ink on paper. Framed
57 x 57

Olga Chernysheva. From the project "Flowers riot". 2022

Oil on canvas. Set of 4 canvases.
200 х 100 cm each

Olga Chernysheva. From the series Waiting for the Miracle. 2000

Analogue photo print 1/5 +2AP Courtesy of the Artist & Iragui gallery
50x75 cm

Karyotype #3. 2022

Embroidered felt. Courtesy of the artist
100x90 cm

Composition #1. 2020

Found textiles trapped in felt. Courtesy of the artist.
155x x 135 cm

Obscuration 6. 2018.

Wood, silver, gelatin, C-print
144 x 100 cm

Obscuration 9. Vertical Horizon. 2018.

Wood, silver, gelatin, C-print
215 × 23 × 23 (each)