La Piñata of 2020, conception and sculptures by ADAM NIKLEWICZ
https://www.instagram.com/adamniklewicz/
Artist Statement
This street performance celebrates the brave people at the front lines of the COVID-19 epidemic in the US: the healthcare personnel, the members of vulnerable communities that include undocumented aliens, the workers deemed essential. Many of them are of Mexican ancestry, and they bring along the spirit of vitality, resourcefulness and bravery.
In LA PIÑATA OF 2020, a trio of lucha libre fighters wages war on the coronavirus. As the virus (represented here by a 4x4x4-foot sculpture) gets destroyed, it releases wildflower seeds that are embedded in the sculpture. The grassy circle, where all this is staged, will, with time, be enriched by blossoming wildflowers.
The mask-clad Van Rose Drive team were flanked by a mariachi band. The live upbeat rendition of Cielito Lindo sealed the festive nature of the performance.
Bio
Adam Niklewicz earned his BFA in graphic communications from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in sculpture from State University of New York at Purchase (2006).
His work has been featured and discussed in ARTnews, Art New England, Aesthetica, CNN Style, The New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Modern Painters Magazine, The Huffington Post, and the Nation, among others. In Poland, he has been featured in Artpunkt, Exit, Format Obieg and Szum magazines.
He has shown at such venues as Real Art Ways, The New Britain Museum of American Art, The Stamford Museum, Grounds for Sculpture, Black & White Gallery, FiveMyles, Slag Gallery, EBK Gallery, Hudson Valley MOCA, Galerie fur Landschaftskunst (Hamburg, Germany), Gallery of Contemporary Art (Opole, Poland), FWD: Gallery (Poznań, Poland), Zacheta (Warsaw, Poland), Arte Laguna Prize 2014 / the Arsenale (Venice, Italy), Art-Zavod Platforma / Gogolfest (Kiev, Ukraine), JUMP Gallery (Poltava, Ukraine), and York Art Gallery (York, UK).
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Quotidian, East Third Street Gallery, New York, NY
2018 For Real (installation), Kurier Plus Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Best Thing to Hold in Your Hands (2-day performance conducted at the New Haven Armory), ArtSpace, New Haven, CT
2016 To Gogol With Love, JUMP, Poltava, Ukraine
2014 Adam Niklewicz / Sculpture (mostly), EBK Gallery, Hartford, CT
2012 Walking Around a Tree, video projection, public art project, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art / Real Art Ways /City of Hartford, Hartford, CT (brochure)
2012 The Charter Oak, water mural, public art project, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art / Real Art Ways / City of Hartford, Hartford, CT
2011 Locus Communis (commonplace), Black & White Gallery / Project Space, Brooklyn, NY (catalogue)
2009 The Soup Show, installation, FiveMyles, Brooklyn, NY (brochure)
2007 The Invisible Solid, installation, Long Island University Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2006 The Ballad of the Twin Beekeepers, installation, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT (brochure)
2004 New Works, installations, New Space Gallery (at MCC), Manchester, CT
2002 New/Now, installations, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
2001 Signs, installations, Silvermine Art Center, New Canaan, CT
