Chinatown, New York
Marcin Janusz
Ghosts and Roots
FiermanFierman presents Ghosts and Roots, Polish artist Marcin Janusz's first solo exhibition in New York. Comprised of large scale paintings created in New York at RU Residency Unlimited alongside new stained glass and hand-blown glass sculptures, Ghosts and Roots is a story about Slavic mythology – about forgotten spirits and buried roots. The exhibition intertwines folk tales with ecological reflection, evoking the timeless dialogue between human beings and the natural world. Drawing from Eastern European folklore and the oral tradition of storytelling, Marcin Janusz reinterprets ancient legends through the lens of contemporary experience in this new series of paintings. His inspiration comes from myths born out of the observation of natural phenomena – from awe at the world of plants, the elements, and the cosmos. The artist challenges the conventions of classical oil painting by experimenting with materiality – incorporating soil, sugar, and resin alongside paint. Through these formal gestures, he transforms his canvases into reliefs, imbuing each element of the composition with symbolic meaning. The title of the exhibition points both to an ancestral rootedness in ancient narratives and to the need to rediscover our connection with the world around us – here and now. Referring to Slavic mythology, the artist invokes deities and demons who shaped the myth of creation and the order of the world – figures such as Perun and Weles. Janusz also tells the story of the Drowned Man, fascinated by will-o’-the-wisps that lured him into the depths; Dziewanna, the goddess of meadows and fertility; and Nawia, the realm of the dead hidden deep beneath the earth. Featured works also echo traces of old rituals – dances by the fire, the summoning of rain, and midsummer ceremonies in search of the mythical fern flower, believed to bring happiness and prosperity. These motifs represent opposing yet complementary forces: sky and earth, day and night, fire and water, life and death. In this way, Ghosts and Roots becomes a reflection on the cycles of nature, the memory of matter, and the spiritual dimension of human rootedness. Marcin Janusz (b. 1991, Poland, lives and works in Kracow, PL) received his Master of Arts from the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts Faculty of Painting in 2018 followed by a PhD at same in 2023. Janusz’s recent solo exhibitions include Milky Flesh, LETO, Warsaw, PL (2024); Once Upon a Time… Life, Szara Kamienica Gallery, Kraków, PL (2024). Recent group exhibitions include Let me tell you about myself / about us, National Museum in Gdańsk, PL (2025); Nostalgia. Seekers of Fading Stars, Mocak, Kraków, PL (2025); One Hundred Ghosts, Manggha, Kraków, PL (2025); Borderland of Worlds IV. The Empire of Chlorophyll, CEP UJ, Kraków, PL (2025); South of the Border, West of the Sun, Laze Mike Gallery, Seoul, KR (2024); Arcadius. Great passions. Confrontations – Central Museum of Textile, Łódź, PL (2024); From the Ashes, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, PL (2024). Marcin Janusz’s residency is made possible with support from the Polish Cultural Institute New York, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, National Centre for Culture NCK, LETO Gallery, and Fierman Gallery.