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Małgorzata Mirga-Tas
Beyond the Horizon
Adjacent to the High Line at 18th Street and 10th Avenue
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is a Roma artist, sculptor, painter, educator and activist. The Roma are a transnational ethnic minority group that has historically been subject to discrimination, deportation, mass incarceration, and forced labor. In 2022, Mirga-Tas was selected to represent Poland at the 59th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale—the first Roma artist to ever represent any country. The artist is known for her vibrant textile collages that challenge pervasive negative stereotypes of Romani people, often made with materials and fabrics collected from her family and friends. Working alongside experienced seamstresses in her studio, Mirga-Tas sews pieces of clothing, handkerchiefs, tablecloths, curtains, and sheets together to create vivid portraits and scenes that address anti-Roma sentiment and propose a new, affirmative, feminist vision of Roma communities. She takes particular care to show matriarchal family structures and depict strong female Roma figures she admires—artists, activists, community organizers, and politicians.
For the High Line, Mirga-Tas presents a new artwork, Beyond the Horizon, for the 18th Street Billboard. The work, hailing from her On the Journey series, continues the artist’s practice of reclaiming how the Roma have traditionally been represented throughout art history, and reimagining the iconography that has played a substantial role in proliferating and reinforcing negative stereotypes. In particular, the artist looks to small-scale black-and-white engravings by Jacques Callot and Auguste Raffet, 19th-century French artists who depicted scenes of the Roma as dangerous, armed criminals traveling on foot, horseback, and caravan with all their belongings in tow. Historically, the Roma were forced to adopt an itinerant existence due to the constant persecution they faced. Beyond the Horizon presents the same core subject matter as Callot and Raffet’s work—a migrating Roma community—however Mirga-Tas’ monumental interpretation instead offers an idyllic, pastoral scene, rich in color and texture to give shape and dignity to this community that has so often been misrepresented. Beyond the Horizon highlights the moving caravan not as something to be feared, but as an inspirational reminder of the will to live.
Artist bio
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (b. 1978, Zakopane) lives and works in Czarna Góra, Poland. She has exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions including Västerås Konstmuseum, Västerås, Sweden (2024); Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, UK (2024); Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, the Netherlands (2024); Haefner Foyer Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland (2023); Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art, Seville, Spain (2023); Brücke Museum, Berlin, Germany (2023); Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg, Sweden (2023); Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2023); Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, Poland (2020); and The Polish Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia (2017). She represented the Polish Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, Italy (2022). She has participated in major international group exhibitions including Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2024); After Paradise, Kortrijk Triennale, Courtrai, Belgium (2024); After Rain, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia (2024); Soft Power, Das Minsk Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany (2024); Belgrade Biennial, Belgrade, Serbia (2024); As Though We Hid The Sun in a Sea of Stories, HKW, Berlin, Germany (2023); Paraventi: Folding Screens From the 17th to 21st Centuries, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2023); Images of Power, Textile Biennial 2023, Museum Rijswijk, Rijswijk, the Netherlands (2023); SYMPHONY OF ALL THE CHANGES, Guangzhou Triennial, China (2023); RomaMoMA, Documenta15, Kassel, Germany (2022); Herstories, 3rd Autostrada Biennale, Prizren, Kosovo (2019-2021); Warsaw Under Construction, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (2020); 11th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2020); and Romani Art, The Ethnography Museum, Tarnów, Poland (2018). Her work is featured in the collections of major institutions around the world, including Alkar Contemporary Collection (ACC), Bilbao, Spain; Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, the Netherlands; ERIAC Collection, Berlin, Germany Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden; Kunsthaus, Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland Kunstmuseum; Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein; Mucem Museum, Marseille, France; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland; Museum of Romani Culture, Brno, Czech Republic; Tate Collection, London, UK; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, Florida; and Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland.
Support
Lead support for High Line Art comes from Amanda and Don Mullen. Major support is provided by Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and Charina Endowment Fund.
High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.
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