I haven’t a Single Explorer on my Planet.

White Walls is pleased to announce I Haven’t a Single Explorer on My Planet by Polish born, New York City-based artist, Olek. The opening reception will be Saturday, February 8, from 7-11 pm, and the exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through March 8, 2014.

“No one knows what freedoms means until it is taken away. When you feel trapped, you can either sink low or dream big.” This was the guiding thought on Olek’s mind when she began thinking about her first solo exhibition in San Francisco. The artist began 2013 with one foot in and the other out, on house arrest, but she resolved to free herself, a resolution that turned 2013 into the year that her work featured the theme of an independent, powerful woman – strong, yet trapped.

For the start of a new year, Olek installed a crocheted fence in New York City inscribed with “there is no such thing as part freedom” as a tribute to the hero Nelson Mandela and a reflection on the ebb and flow of change. For example, despite global progress made in 2013 many American states have put a hold on or outright banned gay marriages. The Russian parliament enacted a law penalizing displays of support for sexual and marital equality and India criminalized gay sex. Further into January, Olek went to jail in Katowice, Poland. This time voluntarily. Olek taught the women how to crochet and the men installed the frame for her crocheted hallway piece, entitled “pocaluj przyszlosc” (kiss the future), which proudly hangs in the passage that leads to metaphorical, and eventually, actual freedom.

I Haven’t a Single Explorer on My Planet will take shape as a massive installation with a full sized boat at its center which Olek makes clear is an expression and symbol of liberty: “The boat should be out on the open waters. It should be able to turn with the wind and the current as it pleases. But instead my crocheted boat will be placed within the gallery, stalled, much like the place our society is in until we move forward. Only when equality is total can it truly be called freedom. And like most things, freedom can be contagious. 2014 is the year of freedom and I intend to share it.”

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Olek was born Agata Oleksiak in 1978 in Poland. In 2000, she received a BA in Cultural Studies from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland and relocated to New York City. Olek’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and public spaces worldwide and featured in numerous publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, TIME Magazine, Vogue Italia, Newsweek/Daily Beast, Village Voice, Vibe Magazine, Artinfo, PBS, CNN, CBS, ABC and NBC. Olek is the recipient of the Ruth Mellon Award for sculpture in 2004, In Situ Artaq award (France) in 2011, and a grant in 2011 from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) for performance in public space. In 2010, the artist was commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art for a one-day interactive performance installation. In 2012, Olek was part of the “40 Under 40: Craft Futures” exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, for which her entire crocheted studio apartment was exhibited. Recently, she has exhibited at Miami Art Basel as part of Women on the Walls at Wynwood Walls and curated by Jeffrey Deitch.

Event Information:
I Haven’t a Single Explorer on My Planet
Opening Reception – Saturday, February 8, 7-11 pm
On View Through March 8, 2014
@ White Walls (www.whitewallssf.com)
886 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94109