Anastasia Komar

Swivel Gallery is pleased to present a two day presentation with Anastasia Komar, titled Gild, taking place at the gallery on Saturday and Sunday. In a world where consumer culture dictates the pace, Anastasia Komar offers an alternative — a new narrative about our time. The exhibition Gild presents five unique sculptures made of unusual materials such as fish skin, mosquito mesh, and fiberglass, which combine ancient myths and modern criticism. The project brings together Komar's artistic (mooqko) and design (formsstudio) practices, intertwining them in a unique study of contemporary aesthetics.

Gild is on view for only the upcoming weekend as a special two day presentation showcasing the artist’s five unique sculptures —Mammal Tooth, Silene, Oneiroi, Limen, and Celo—that reimagine traditional craftsmanship by merging ancient myths with contemporary criticism.

The Gild sculptures are offered to the viewer as votives for change. Historically, votive objects were made to gain favor with supernatural forces. They symbolized commitments to the gods during periods of anxiety, transition or achievement in exchange for good fortune. The project poses the question: What does luxury mean in a world that has increasingly diminished the role of craftsmanship?

The Gild sculptures act as sacred objects that reflect the flourishing of contemporary consumerist culture. Each sculpture blends historical references and ancient myths with present days values and obsessions, to create surreal, sacred objects. The sculptures are made painstakingly by hand, using artisanal techniques but replacing luxurious and rare materials with ubiquitous domestic and construction materials. They represent a promise, a new mythology. They are offered up to the viewer, in an attempt to change a system designed for exploitation and control into a system that develops and preserves artisanal traditions.

Gild criticizes the consumer society, in which rapid production and digitalization often erase the individuality and character of craftsmanship.

The project offers an alternative—a world where traditional skills are preserved and celebrated. "These objects are not just physical objects; they are symbols of time, labor, and cultural memory, which today are threatened with extinction," says Anastasia Komar. Through her works, she conveys a message about the importance of human artistry and the need to preserve heritage in the modern world.

Anastasia Komar (b. 1986)’s practice is informed by her research into the intersection of art and contemporary bioengineering, seeking to elucidate aspects of our reality that increasingly affect the human experience but elude comprehension. Referencing science, theology, and history, Komar combines acrylic painting executed in a wide gamut of short, vivid, and luminescent brushstrokes with advanced polymer sculptures that echo forms at once biomolecular, mythological, and mammalian. Komar received an MA in Architecture and Environmental Design from the Moscow Institute of Architecture.

Solo exhibitions include Hosts at Management, New York; ex-vivo at Bank, Shanghai; and von Neumann’s Dream at Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles. Group exhibitions include Weirding Worlds at Podium, Hong Kong; Fever Dream at Swivel Gallery, New York; Holding at Kristen Lorello & Van Doren Waxter, New York; Poetics of Falsification at Harper’s, East Hampton; America Runs at Dunkunsthalle, New York; Contemporary Practices at the gallery of the School of Visual Arts, New York; Over the Structures at the CICA Museum, South Korea, and has executed several site-specific projects in New York and California.