M E N is very pleased to open our new season on the LES with “Krpice”, Katerina Marcelja’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. The title, “Krpice”, translated from Serbo-Croatian as rags or trifles, references a poem by Vasko Popa, Give Me Back My Rags:

“Give me back my rags

My rags of pure dreaming
Of silk smiling of striped foreboding
Of my cloth of lace

My rags of spotted hope
Of burnished desire of chequered glances
Of skin from my face”

Marcelja’s “Krpice” is an ode to the memories that haven't surfaced. Those that are too insignificant or inconvenient to become part of a narrative. Ethereal, without facts, sequence or elaboration. The minutiae, the irrelevant, the private. Wasted time, tacit desire, efforts that didn't quite make it. Krpice are full of inaccurate references with distorted meanings that engage the absurd. The lose constructions, sculptures and collages made from old garments, bits of fabric, and rags, become an invitation for the memory to take flight or for the imagination to create a memory of what never occurred.

M E N is a contemporary art gallery located at 13 Monroe Street in the Two Bridges neighborhood of New York City, presenting singular artistic gestures by emerging and mid-career artists in a purposefully-small storefront exhibition space. M E N is Molly Krom + Enrico Gomez + Nick De Pirro.

Let’s Talk Art With Brooke

Episode 84: The MEN Gallery in NYC hosts Katerina Marcelja’s solo exhibition Krpice. “Krpice” is a Serbo-Croatian term that translates as “rags or trifles, references a poem by Vasko Popa, “Give Me Back My Rags“.