Who is working today and what kind of work do we, as a society, value? This exhibition of sculptures, textiles, and surfaces produced from blue-collar work wear asks viewers to reflect on where the objects in our lives are made and who is making them. Kasia Ozga’a cast, sewn, and printed forms evoke bodies kept out of sight and out of mind that produce products vital to our daily lives.
In the exhibition, Ozga creates conversations between pieces produced over the past 10 years. Flat, sewn work, both free-hanging and stretched over stretcher bars, dominates the wall space, which is interspersed with newer works in aluminum and bronze. The latter depict organized and tangled zippers, many cast and copied from the very garments sewn together in the textile pieces.
In addition to more abstract pieces, representational cast concrete sculptures of the same human arm, alternately limp and knotted, sit covering a textile piece on the floor and perched on a couple of pedestals throughout the space.
The dominant work in the show is a huge “chandelier” of blue collar pants, overalls, shirts and jacket-sleeves sewn together on a found re-welded metal armature. It hangs from the gallery’s cathedral ceiling, rising above viewers and the other works in the room and evoking the spectacular locker room (vestiaires, Le Grand Lavabo/salle des pendus) of the Mining Museum (Puits Couriot) in the post-industrial city of Saint-Étienne, France, where the artist lived and worked before moving to the United States in 2022.
Hastings Art Gallery at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, NC presents Human Resources, a solo show of contemporary artworks by Kasia Ozga from 01/28-03/05, 2025. Ozga will present an artist talk during the exhibition opening on 01/30, 2025.
This exhibition was supported by an NC Arts Council Artist Support Grant.
