PAULINA OLOWSKA AND DEBORAH TURBEVILLE: WINDOWS OF THE WIND

Pace is pleased to announce Widows of the Wind, an exhibition conceived by Paulina Olowska for its Geneva gallery, featuring new paintings in dialogue with photographs by Deborah Turbeville.

November 22, 2024 – February 22, 2025

For Widows of the Wind, Olowska has extended and reshaped the dialogue between her own work and that of Turbeville, first articulated in her 2023 exhibition, Resonance, at Kurimanzutto in Mexico City in collaboration with MUUS Collection. If Resonance communed with Turbeville’s work like fluid, wavering reverberations, the artistic conversation present in Widows of the Wind can be read through the refractive distortion of a sheet of European winter ice.

Olowska’s multilayered practice—spanning painting, collage, sculpture, video, installation, and performance—is underscored by a curatorial methodology that treats the past, particularly the histories of female experience and perception, as her primary material. This critical, always female, gaze is shaped by the intricate connections between the locations tied to her muses, the settings of her exhibitions, and her personal experiences of living and working in Eastern Europe. Through these posthumous collaborations with women artists, Olowska gives texture and dimension to the broader histories that they share.

Turbeville, a groundbreaking fashion editor, photographer, and artist, played a key role in elevating fashion photography into the realm of avant-garde art, alongside figures like Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton. However, Turbeville’s approach contrasted with the 'urban erotic underworld' of her male peers, favoring a delicate, introspective female gaze. While her art photography often bears the marks of scratches and printing manipulations, the photographs Olowska has selected are more commercial in nature, created as advertisements for high fashion. This tension—between their moody, introspective portrayal of the female psyche and their function as promotional objects—forms the crux of Olowska's artistic response.

While photography captures a moment in time with immediacy, both mediums demand patience, skill, and dedication in different ways. Olowska’s work invites reflection on how these differing temporalities—one instantaneous, the other more prolonged—shape meaning. How do the shifts in time, process, and medium influence the narratives these works convey, particularly in their portrayal of the female experience?