Julia Medyńska

Double Entendre at NADA Villa Warsaw

at NADA Villa Warsaw
Warsaw, Poland

22 May 2024 to 25 May 2025
VIP Preview (by Invitation)
Wednesday, May 21, 5–10pm

Office Space Gallery is proud to announce their participation in the 2nd edition of NADA Villa Warsaw from May 21 until May 25, 2025 at Villa Gawrońskich at Al. Ujazdowskie 23 in downtown Warsaw. The gallery is presenting a two person exhibition entitled Double Entendre. This presentation includes recent paintings from Polish artist Julia Medyńska and new conceptual photographs from New Jersey-based artist Chunbum Park. Both artists wrestle with the sociopolitical and aesthetic dimensions of art history by re-examining the tropes and configurations involving the history of painting. Medyńska’s series looks closely at the cinematic film still, tinted color grading, and theatrical mise en scène as her primary forms of engagement with traditional genres of painting such as landscapes and portraits. Also her paintings reflect a particular alienation within private melancholy and a dystopic Romanticism by representing genderfluid figures as witnesses to landscapes that are scarred by the tension between sublime horror and seductive beauty. As a complement, Park’s works deconstruct in a playful manner traditional conventions of the non-binary female body such as the odalisque or the onnagata while exploring gender fluidity in relation to clothing and social environment. Both artists have this dialogue with each other through the meeting of East/West, painting/photography, and male/female/non-binary.

Julia Medyńska was born in Socialist Poland. When she was five years old, her family managed to escape into West Berlin. After high school, she moved to New York City to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and The Neighborhood Playhouse. She performed at the Off-Broadway Manhattan Ensemble Theater. Heavily influenced by her acting background, her figurative paintings are composed narratives that explore the idea of the social mask employed to hide underlying psychological truths. In 2017, she received her master's degree in Visual Arts at Columbia University. She is a three-time award recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. Recent solo exhibitions include: Muzeum Ziemi in Międzyrzecz, Poland, Pilipczuk Gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark, Artinfo Gallery in Warsaw, Poland, Jedlitschka Gallery in Zurich, Galeria Miejska Arsenał. Poland and NADA Villa Warsaw. Medyńska currently works and lives in Poland.

Chunbum Park (Korean alphabet: 박준범, Chinese characters: 朴準範), also known as Chun, is an artist from South Korea, where they were born in 1991. They received their BFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in 2020 and their MFA in Fine Arts Studio from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2022, where they changed their pronouns. Born a male, Park likes to cross dress and depicts themselves as a woman in their paintings and photographs. They are the inventor of the ArtBid art auction card game and run the Emerging Whales Collective (currently merged with the Office Space Gallery website), where they interview other artists. In 2023, Park began writing exhibition reviews for various online and print magazines, including the New Visionary Magazine. They currently reside in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.

For images and inquiries: officespacegallerist@gmail.com

About NADA
Founded in 2002, the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) is a not-for-profit 501c6 collective of professionals working with contemporary art. Its mission is to create an open flow of information, support, and collaboration within the field and to develop a stronger sense of community among its constituency. NADA believes that the adversarial approach to exhibiting and selling art has run its course. It believes that change can be achieved through fostering constructive thought and dialogue between various points in the art industry from large galleries to small spaces, non-profit and commercial alike. Through support and encouragement, NADA facilitates strong and meaningful relationships between its members working with new contemporary and emerging art; while enhancing the public’s interaction with contemporary art.