Join us on Thu, Jan 29, 6-8pm for an opening reception celebrating “Pat Oleszko: Fool Disclosure” and “In Practice: Ana Gzirishvili.”
_______
Pat Oleszko: Fool Disclosure
On view Jan 29–Apr 27, 2026
SculptureCenter presents the first solo exhibition in a New York City institution in over 35 years of Pat Oleszko. Rooted in humor, sharp social commentary, and defiance of all forms of authority, Oleszko’s practice has often taken the form of sculptures which lend themselves to raucous performances that use linguistic wit to address various concerns, including accessible housing, women’s issues, and world politics. As her work developed from the 1970s on, Oleszko devised two strategies: using her body, which led to costumes, and using air, which produced large inflatable works. In both cases, her art “walked out the door,” in her words, and she began “using all the world as a stooge.” For performances and events, Oleszko continues to create a universe of characters, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to worldbuilding and to “wearing her work,” from dressing up as different characters for a waitressing job in her early days in New York to presenting at the Winter Olympics and appearing in movies, festivals, and theaters worldwide.
Spanning both floors of SculptureCenter, this survey exhibition is constructed around Oleszko’s singular inflatables, which first appeared in the 1980s, and brings together dozens of these airy, monumental works for the first time. From “Yupasaurus” (1980), a dinosaur that satirizes developers aggressively buying up land in New York, to “Quit Draggin’” (2012), a towering dragon that bemoans a slow response to the climate crisis, they offer a rare glimpse into this vital aspect of her work. The exhibition also includes other key works from her decades-long career, such as costumes, sculptural chapeaux, films, performance documentation, and archival material from the 1970s to the present.
_______
In Practice: Ana Gzirishvili
On view Jan 29–Apr 27, 2026
Ana Gzirishvili’s practice spans poetry, film, sculpture, and installation, exploring the liminal spaces between beings, objects, and material and immaterial realms. Her works engage with themes of transitionality, circulation, and displacement, often through disassembling and reassembling contexts and forms. For In Practice, she will create a new group of leather sculptures sourced from aged furniture, reshaped into still life arrangements inspired by various architectural contexts that explore the scars and traces left by objects and spaces.
