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The Arts Intel Report

Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales

Three sculptures at Alicja Kwade’s Telos Tales exhibition.

540 W 25th St, New York, NY 10001

The Polish-German contemporary visual artist, Alicja Kwade, comes to New York with never-before-seen sculptures and installations that focus on the subjectivity of time and space. At the heart of the exhibition are three large-scale sculptures in which powder-coated steel frames and branch-like bronze forms intersect. Each work is named for a concept from Aristotle’s fourfold theory of causes: Causa Materialis, Causa Efficiens, and Causa Formalis. The fourth cause—the purpose, or telos—is the exhibition’s title. The “trees” hold a cylindrical clock within. “My work is about structures,” says Kwade, “and time is one structure.” —Carolina de Armas

Photo: © Alicja Kwade