Recently in New York, at May’s NADA New York art fair, Galerie Noah Klink presented a quietly arresting survey of works by Polish artist Kami Mierzvvinsk, tracing nearly a decade of their meditative, body-led practice. On view from May 7 to 11, 2025, the presentation spans small-scale early paintings from 2017 to larger, more technically ambitious works from 2024, offering visitors a layered glimpse into Mierzvvinsk’s evolving visual language.
Mierzvvinsk’s process is deeply physical, guided less by formal strategy and more by somatic intuition. Painting, for them, is a ritual—a practice of movement, breath, and gesture where the body becomes an extension of the brush. Using water-based paints, ink, and epoxy resin, they create surfaces where materiality and metaphysical intention converge. Rooted in East Asian spiritualist traditions, Mierzvvinsk’s work channels a space where the act of creation becomes both meditative and transcendental.
Kami Mierzvvinsk Plays with Material, Shape and Boundaries
Installation view of Kami Mierzvvinsk at NADA New York, courtesy of Galerie Noah Klink.
Early works on view, like Rise (2017) and Soul (2019), reveal the initial stages of this search for affective resonance through texture and gesture. The small scale of these pieces invites intimate viewing. Their surfaces—while layered—remain relatively restrained, hinting at the artist’s growing interest in how the material body of the painting can act as a portal for both the maker and the viewer.
A key element in Mierzvvinsk’s progression is their unconventional use of epoxy resin. Typically associated with industrial precision and high-gloss finishes, resin in Mierzvvinsk’s hands becomes something else entirely. Rather than emphasizing clarity or control, their layering of resin works to dissolve definition. The effect is that of a reflective membrane—an ambiguous skin that both conceals and reveals, resisting straightforward interpretation. The viewer is left with an image that feels both distant and deeply familiar, triggering memories or emotions that evade precise naming.
“This ritual helps me fully integrate my body into the creative process so that during painting, the gestures can be free yet conscious. My entire body becomes the tool,”
—Kami Mierzvvinsk
Installation view of Kami Mierzvvinsk at NADA New York, courtesy of Galerie Noah Klink.
This ambiguity extends to their titling conventions. Where earlier works carried evocative yet open-ended titles, like Rise and Soul, more recent pieces take on cryptic alphanumeric titles—LFBC(H) or wwgwfo—or remain entirely untitled. These names suggest private codes, systems of logic known only to the artist, underscoring their preference for withholding fixed meaning and inviting viewers to bring their own interpretations to the work.
Color also becomes increasingly significant in Mierzvvinsk’s more recent paintings. Deep reds and electric blues punctuate the surface, contrasting and bleeding into one another through translucent layers. These chromatic shifts aren’t simply aesthetic decisions; they seem to signal an intensification of mood and psychological depth. The paintings suggest emotional states, dreamlike terrains, or moments of suspended time—without ever fully surrendering to figuration.
Art critic Johanna Siegler has captured the essence of this perceptual tension when she writes: “We see, but cannot quite name it. We remember, but without reference. Must what is seen always be known? Must what is known always be legible?” It’s this destabilization—this gentle refusal to let image and meaning fully cohere—that defines Mierzvvinsk’s work. The result is a body of paintings that invite slow looking and sustained attention, rewarding those willing to sit with uncertainty.
For NADA visitors navigating the fair’s often overstimulating atmosphere, Galerie Noah Klink’s presentation offers a welcome pause—a space where interpretation unfolds gradually, and the act of viewing becomes as much about feeling as seeing. Mierzvvinsk’s works serve as reminders that not all understanding arrives through language, and that sometimes, the most powerful encounters happen at the edge of clarity.
About Kami Mierzvvinsk
Installation view of Kami Mierzvvinsk at NADA New York, courtesy of Galerie Noah Klink.
Kami Mierzvvinsk is a queer interdisciplinary visual artist and performer. Their artistic practice includes painting, installation, works with space, video art and performance. Being strongly influenced by the relationship between human and nature, and between human and his environment, they often touch on issues of minorities and social exclusion in their works. In turn, in their painting practice they are strongly imbued with the concept from the ancient Greek theory of anamnesis: the mental act of recalling what the soul saw in the world of ideas before it merged with the body; which is an explanation of knowledge unattainable by human senses. Telling often with the act of painting about the longing for disembodied times, assuming equality across divisions, focusing on the element of spirit and its genderless, fluid matter. A performative painting practice rooted in East Asian culture (e.g.Ink-Wang, Dansaekhwa, Gutai) allows them to visualize a supra-visible mysticism — presenting painting that is personal in meaning, while at the same time reflective and ideologically universal.
Portrait courtesy of the artist.
