Possesia introduces Jan Manski’s current project, an uncompromising body of work whose evolution reveals a ritualised re‐awakening of the destruction that spread across Europe 100 years ago. An atmosphere of shamanistic ritual is set against striking metaphors for supremacy and intimidation. Manski presents a lexicon of cruelty in Possesia, introducing a pagan world of the occult merged with a God‐sent plague. 

The series is a prequel to Onania, the inaugural universe of Manski’s immersive trilogy. The disturbing universe of Jan Manski's art conjures visionary worlds through multi‐disciplinary projects, which are inextricably linked by an exploration of mankind’s most elemental fascinations. Manski applies a combination of humour, the macabre and skilful production in his ambitious series referencing modern culture, mythology and history.

Possesia is a journey into the subconscious, where Manski delves into our primal fears and existential anxiety. The shamanistic atmosphere conjures latent drives within human nature, intentionally suppressed in favour of reassuring behaviour. Manski’s recent universe proves that these instincts can be channelled into familiar cycles of violence.

Manski has been developing Possesia since 2010 as the starting point for his working trilogy of Possesia, Onania and Eugenica. Manski cites Louise Bourgeois, Joseph Beuys, Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky as seminal influences on the series. Possesia’s metaphor of violence is evoked across a range of media, largely dark, organic materials including oil paint, fur, leather, soil, antlers, despoiled vintage mannequins, animal bones assembled with steel. Possesia’s film, Primal Elements, reveals the ritual preparation of the contents of this world balanced with 1930s documentary imagery.

Jan Manski was born in 1981 in Warsaw and lives and works in London. Manski graduated from Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (MA Fine Art) in 2007 and Central Saint Martins College, London (MFA Fine Art) in 2010. Manski’s inaugural solo exhibition was Onania, Breese Little, Rochelle School, London (2012). Selected group exhibitions include Epidemic, The Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun, Poland (2014), Manski, Cohen, de Freston, Breese Little, London (2013), Onania Institute, Secret Cinema, London (2012), Subject To Change, Kursaal Gallery Space, Southend on Sea (2012), Exotic, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia (2012), Hybridity and Mutation: The Nature of Change, Breese Little, The Old Truman Brewery, London (2011) and Academy of Fine Arts Best Of, de Cervantes School, Warsaw, Poland (2007).

Breese Little Gallery
30b Great Sutton Street
London EC1V ODU United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)79 19416290
josephine@breeselittle.com
www.breeselittle.com

Opening hours
Wednesday - Saturday
From 12pm to 6pm or by appointment

Related images

  1. Jan Maski, Idol I, 2013, 86 x 200 x 86 cm (33 x 78 3/4 x 33 in), leather, found army boot, prosthetic leg, manequin parts, bones, found machinery, polyvinyl acetate, soil, fur, horn, vitrine
  2. Jan Maski, Idol III, 2010, 100 x 70 cm (39 3/8 x 27 9/16 in), colour photograph, soil, steel
  3. Jan Maski, Idol I, 2013, 86 x 200 x 86 cm (33 x 78 3/4 x 33 in), leather, found army boot, prosthetic leg, manequin parts, bones, found machinery, polyvinyl acetate, soil, fur, horn, vitrine
  4. Jan Maski, Study for an Idol VI, 2013 / 62 x 72 x 4 cm (24 7/16 x 28 3/8 x 1 9/16 in), vintage photograph, old tools, soil, polyvinyl acetate, leather, glass box frame
  5. Jan Maski, Implement I, 2013, 183 x 60 x 60 cm (72 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in), porcelain head, enamel, found microscope stand, steel, pieces of laboratory equipment, ruler, measuring instrument, vitrine
  6. Jan Maski, Study For an Idol IX, 2013, 80 x 58 x 4 cm (31 1/2 x 22 7/8 x 1 9/16 in), 1939 horse anatomy illustration, 1870 human anatomy , illustration, crayon, tools, glass box frame