Nguyen Wahed Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Art Brussels 2025, presenting a thoughtfully curated selection of works exploring the intersection of human experience, technology, and ecological awareness.
The gallery will showcase Addie Wagenknecht's Alive Still, which evolved from her acclaimed 2016 collaboration with photographer Aiala Hernando, Still Alive. Created through virtual platforms like Zoom, WhatsApp, and Google Chat, these works redefine artifacts of modern coping mechanisms while acknowledging that "the past is not a finished story but an ongoing state, a part of continual being." Wagenknecht's practice has consistently explored tensions between expression and technology, blending conceptual approaches with forms of hacking and sculpture that engage with pop culture and feminist theory.
The booth will feature a presentation of Tomasz Kulka's paintings, which probe the darker corners of human nature and societal malaise. The Polish artist's practice spans painting, sculpture, street art, video, and ceramics, consistently exploring the repressed and fundamentally human aspects of existence. His recent work grapples with the Anthropocene, portraying humanity's self-destructive tendencies through meticulously rendered flora and fauna. Working in miniature scale, Kulka translates personal experiences into broader commentaries on social decay, often referencing his native Wolbrom—a declining industrial town in southern Poland that serves as a metaphor for urban degradation. A recipient of the Grand Prix at the 45th Bielska Jesień Painting Biennale and the 2nd prize at the 44th Bielska Jesień Painting Biennale, Kulka incorporates quasi-religious imagery into his compositions as a sardonic response to art's attempts at gravitas in an era of superficiality.
In a beguiling dialogue between new media and the ephemerality of the physical, Anna Ridler and Sofia Crespo will present their fifth collaborative project, building upon their previous work Snapshots: Orchids. This new work transcends conventional digital artistic practice and explores territories beyond traditional photography techniques. Their previous collaboration featured 108 Polaroid printed images that captured the delicate interplay of light, color, and texture characterizing orchids, inviting the audience into a wistful engagement with these enigmatic blooms under threat. The term 'snapshot'—also used within machine learning to signify a captured instance during AI model training—creates a conceptual bridge between photography and artificial intelligence.
Nguyen Wahed's presentation at Art Brussels 2025 aims to present a nuanced examination of how artists navigate personal isolation, environmental crisis, and technological mediation. Each artist employs distinct methodologies and materials to articulate the complex realities of contemporary existence, revealing both vulnerability and resilience in the face of rapidly changing social, ecological, and digital landscapes.
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About Nguyen Wahed Gallery
Founded in 2024, Nguyen Wahed is a contemporary art gallery dedicated to exploring the relationships between human, natural, and digital realms. The program features artists whose practices span multiple media and conceptual frameworks through idiosyncratic commentaries on societal changes. Whether through algorithmic constructs, painterly or enveloping installations, we cultivate a space where established narratives are deconstructed, and new dialogues emerge.
