Few artists aim to make sense of the subjectivity and complexity of time and space quite like the Polish-born, Berlin-based artist Alicja Kwade. In each of her works, ranging from sculptures and large-scale public installations to films, photographs, and works on paper, Kwade displays an astute sense of temporality and the ticking hands of the clock. Her practice, in a literal and figurative sense, is a quest to understand time as a ruler and shaper of our lives and of our world. For her latest exhibition, “Telos Tales,” on view at Pace Gallery in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood through August 15, Kwade has created three monumental steel-frame sculptures with treelike limbs alongside new mixed-media works in an effort to engage the intangible nature of time. As with all her work, “Telos Tales” is philosophical, illusionistic, and inspires wonder: Long after a viewer has seen it, it will leave them questioning.
On the episode, Kwade considers the unfathomability of all things, finds humor in being human, and explains what a relief it is to know that some questions have no clear answers—and never will.
Special thanks to our Season 11 presenting sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.
Show notes:
[13:19] “Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales” at Pace Gallery
[16:56] “Hiroshi Sugimoto on Photography as a Form of Timekeeping”
[18:41] “Alicja Kwade: Pretopia” (2025)
[24:42] On Kawara’s Date Paintings
[25:04] “Alicja Kwade & Agnes Martin: Rhythm, Equilibrium, and Time” (2024)
[25:04] “Gegen den Lauf” (2012-2014)
[29:48] “Stellar Day” (2013)
[31:44] “Against the Run” (2015)
[31:44] “Against the Run” (2019)
[31:44] Pinacoteca Agnelli Art Center
[35:04] “88 Seconds” (2017)
[35:04] Eadweard Muybridge
[39:24] Hiroshi Sugimoto
[49:00] Salvador Dalí
[49:00] Harry Houdini
[49:00] Kazimir Malevich
[59:27] “iPhone” (2017)
[59:27] “Computer (PowerMac)” (2017)
[01:04:47] “LinienLand” (2018)
[01:04:47] “Alicja Kwade: Parapivot” (2019)
[01:04:47] “Alicja Kwade: Viva Arte Viva” (2017)
[01:08:30] “L’ordre des Mondes (Totem)” (2024)
[01:13:50] Jason Farago
[01:13:50] “Celestial Visions on the Met Roof”
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.