Stefan Gierowski Foundation in Warsaw Hosts Group Show on Light

The Stefan Gierowski Foundation in Warsaw presents 'Aether Commons. Refracted Cosmologies,' a group exhibition curated by Azu Nwagbogu that explores manifestations of light. The show features works by Polish painter Stefan Gierowski (1925–2020) alongside contemporary artists including El Anatsui, Andile Dyalvane, Mona Hatoum, Esther Mahlangu, Julian Kyusang Lee, and William Kentridge. Gierowski, who turned to abstract painting in the late 1950s, investigated light as fundamental to color. The exhibition examines how surfaces transform through external forces, how perception constructs stable images from changing information, and how light interacts with different materials. Gierowski's works, such as two 1966 watercolors, demonstrate transparency and light penetration. The show includes Kentridge's video 'Learning the Flute' and two large woodcuts on newsprint. The foundation, run by Gierowski's grandchildren, aims to make his work accessible while fostering dialogue with contemporary art. Gierowski cited influences including war, the atomic bomb, socialism, space flights, cybernetics, Stalin, John XXIII, Kennedy, and Mao Zedong.