PAULINA OLOWSKA
— This Fall, while I was in San Francisco, my friend Bonnie Camplin sent me an invitation card to Creative Growth. Following her advice the first chance we had, my partner and I took a motorbike trip to Oakland.
It was a Tuesday—a regular day of work in CG. The doors were wide open, we heard the sounds of hammering, scribbling, conversations and giggling. Behind the doors was a gallery covered with collages, watercolours, oil paintings, pencil drawings, ballpoint drawings, crayon drawings, decoupage, and all kind of paper mache figures, cardboard vehicles, abstract ceramics and wool works.
This was not a usual gallery, everything looked attractive, unpretentious and extremely imaginative. From the gallery you can look into the workshop—a large open space with working tables and studios for all sort of media.
In the studio there was around 40 artists varied in age, all working on their artworks. The results were fabulous—from a video of Star Wars puppet theater, to ceramic waves, to amazing abstract wool scarves and collaged pictures of dogs in 1970s sweaters.
What caught my eye and made my legs soft was a series of loose interpretations of fashion catwalk drawings, from 2007. This is the work I want to share.
Above:
Artist, Barbara Rice.
Designer, Lanvin.
Above (top to bottom):
Artist, Merritt Wallace, Paulino Martin and Barbara Rice.
Designer, Isaac Mizrahi.
Above:
Artist, Merritt Wallace.
Designer, Prada.
All images from Paper Magazine, September 2007.
Copyright Creative Growth.
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Paulina Olowska was born in 1976, in Gdansk, Poland. Solo exhibitions include Metro Picture, New York; CCA Wattis Institutefor Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Köln; the Abtelberg Museum, Monchengladbach; the Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany; Cabinet Gallery, London, UK; Public Space Commission (with Lucie McKenzie); the Gdansk Shipyard, and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw. In 2007 she was the recipient of a DAAD (Berlin).
www.metropicturesgallery.com
www.galeriebuchholz.de
www.simonleegallery.com
Creative Growth is a non-profit visual arts center, located in Oakland, California, providing art programs, educational and independent living training, counseling and vocational opportunities for disabled adults.