Echoes is a meditation. The exhibition invites us into a space where symbols reverberate across time and evolve in unexpected ways. Religious iconography and archetypal narratives endure in the human psyche, finding embodiment in the form of tattoos and wounds, leaving an imprint upon both the body and soul. Tattoos were once symbols of culture and identity, but here, they are transfigured into living echoes. These marks carry stories but are also reimagined in a new light, asking the question: what happens when the sacred is redefined?
In Chapel (2024), a woman’s back becomes the site of transformation. A medieval Black Madonna, adorned with ribbons like roadside Polish chapels, emerges on the woman's body, distorted by the multitude of scratches in her skin. This sacred image, once confined to a wood panel, fuses with flesh in a quiet rebellion. Solace (2024) deepens this exploration of embodiment and reinvention. A face gazes outward, and a sorrowful yet serene expression is combined with a stream of tears across her face. The past does not merely resurface in these works. It fractures and resists stillness.
The artist renders faces and bodies in hyper realistic detail and startling precision. These figures are not just present and real but more so than reality itself – an intensified, heightened existence. As Baudrillard suggests, hyperrealism does not reflect reality but instead creates its own “improved” version that surpasses the real. Nienartowicz’s figures occupy this space. They become carriers of images that have shaped cultural and religious consciousness for centuries, yet their meaning is reinterpreted. Transformed into tattoos, historic artworks are removed from their original context, granting them a new one. In this way, the artist raises the question of what will remain of the sacred when placed in the vulgar context of a tattoo. These living icons create a palpable tension, sparking a dialogue between the image and its symbolic meaning, the past and present, and the body’s own narrative.
Echoes is Agnieszka Nienartowicz’s second solo exhibition with Nicodim and her first in New York. – Ryan Castle
