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Monika Grzymala (German, born 1970 in Poland) describes herself as an artist who draws in three dimensions, and defines drawing itself as a thought guided by the hand. She works with ephemeral materials - including tape, handmade paper, and objects found locally - to create site-specific, temporary, and ephemeral "architectural inventions" based on the vocabulary of line.
Most recently, Monika Grzymala created a large-scale installation at the Morgan Library & Museum which will be on view until November 3rd. Titled Volumen, the work is composed of thousands of sheets of handmade paper, most of them printed with images of autograph manuscripts from the Morgan's collection, connected with bookbinding yarn and suspended from the ceiling of the museum's Gilbert Court.
According to the artist, Volumen is a visual celebration of paper as a vehicle employed by artists, writers and composers for creative expression. The title alludes not only the large size of the work but also - through the word lumen - to the flux of light that changes the work's appearance throughout the day in the glass-enclosed, 50-foot-high Court designed by Renzo Piano. The installation is the fourth in the Morgan's summer sculpture series which began in 2010. Previous artists have included Mark di Suvero, Xu Bing and Ellsworth Kelly.
Monika Grzymala has participated in many international group exhibitions, including On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2010. Her solo exhibitions and site-specific projects have taken place throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Between 2008 and 2010 Grzymala created two large-scale installations with handmade Washi paper titled Up Here Up There for a private residence in the famous Dakota Building in New York.