Malgorzata Mycek Cowgirl, 2022

Casa Filipka by Her Clique (February 13-16, Mexico City) is our inaugural group exhibition featuring over seventy works by 16 Eastern European women and non-binary artists. Curated by Filipka Rutkowska, the show is organized as an ephemeral art collection that tells a story of the journey to self [re]discovery. Showcasing a region that’s constantly in transition, where democracies are built on remnants of a communist past, the artists use their work to search for their individual, native understanding of identity, sexuality and belonging. The idea for Casa Filipka was inspired by the iconic ‘Casa Susanna’, a venue that functioned during the 1950s and 60s in Upstate New York, as a safe space for gatherings of trans-individuals and crossdresses. Artistic connections between Eastern Europe and Latin America have been based on their often peripheral social and political position to the world’s superpowers, hence the decision to set the inaugural show in Mexico City. With Casa Filipka we seek to encourage and explore the critical tools one can use for thinking about one’s body and identity.

Visit the show in person February 13-16 (address and opening times will be announced via our newsletter) or see the works in our online viewing room which we will launch on February 10.

Part of the sale proceeds will benefit Atzin, a non-profit organization that focuses on addressing priority needs like education, nutrition, water and health in remote areas of Mexico.

Using empty advertising banners as canvases for her large-scale paintings, Mycek comments on Polish society from a standpoint of a non-binary person. She takes a look at the ubiquitousness of the Catholic Church, Eastern European wall units, at how the inner city dwellers are pitted against those from the countryside and the way women who inhabit the latter are negatively stereotyped. The emotional undertone of all of those themes is brought forth thanks to intense acrylic colors skillfully used by the artist. Such re-envisioning of the sometimes grim, Polish reality makes it appear like a fairy tale. A fairy tale about a society that is trying to understand its own divergent character.