Zaha Hadid and Suprematism

Galerie Gmurzynska presents a seminal exhibition curated and designed by Zaha Hadid juxtaposing works of the Russian avant garde with the work of Zaha Hadid Architects. A bright explosion of Russian works pierces through the contemporary works of Zaha Hadid in a dynamic black-and-white design. The dialogue of these works constantly shifts and realigns as one moves through the space focusing on four themes: abstraction, distortion, fragmentation, and flotation.

A site-specific artwork, the exhibition design is a projection of a two-dimensional drawing onto a three-dimensional space. The gallery has become a spatial painting in which the threshold of the picture plane has expanded and can be entered. Spanning almost a century of time, inextricably linked creative manifestos have been superimposed into a simultaneous and on-going dialogue.

Suprematism, led by Kazimir Malevich alongside supporters and students such as El Lissitzky, Ilya Chashnik, and Nikolai Suetin, forged new forms of expression through abstraction. They sought innovation by re-conceptualizing the essence of painting, beginning by conceiving the blank canvas as a construction in itself. They were not interested in static reproductions of the surrounding world but in expanding the edge of the universe they understood through the building up and invention of dynamic new forms. It was this creative and productive energy that inspired Zaha Hadid, who has since established through her work a formative exploration and perpetually inventive vision for delineating new and expansive spatial possibilities.