Fossils From a Future Apocalypse

"The Romanian artist Andra Ursuța's new show at David Zwirner Gallery, Retina Turner, consists of sixteen large ovoid slabs of cast glass - her "Private Dancers." Each encases a spectral, half-formed figure that appears to be partially submerged beneath the sculpture's surface: a skeleton hand, a spinal column, other remnants. They are like fossils of an alien species, artifacts of a civilization that died mid-sentence amidst some volcanic catastrophe. They represent a double exposure of loss and endurance, strange archaeology and cold prophecy."

"She has taken the oval format from Lucio Fontana's egg-shaped paintings, and like Fontana she shares the urge to turn the oval into a portal, a cosmic slit - but while Fontana gestured toward infinity, Ursuța seems overwhelmed by historical fatigue. Like H.R. Giger, Ursuța engineers an anti-heroic vocabulary where ornament functions as wound and polished surfaces feel diseased. As with Matthew Barney, she treats myth as theater, each object a prop in a play without a script."

"The New Museum's Massimiliano Gioni has perceptively written that Ursuța presents "a stratification of references to the past and the future." Her art anticipates a future archaeology of ruins. Each slab operates like a sedimentary layer of personal grief, vestiges of vast killing fields. The past and future collapse into each other, leaving us standing on shifting ground. In some cases, Ursuța has fused and cut tubes of glass into irregular, patterned surfaces."

Andra Ursuța created sixteen large ovoid slabs of cast glass titled "Private Dancers," each encasing spectral, half-formed figures that seem partially submerged beneath the surface. The embedded fragments—skeleton hands, spinal columns, and other remnants—read like fossilized remains of an alien civilization, conveying simultaneous loss and endurance. The oval format references Lucio Fontana; surfaces and ornament evoke H.R. Giger's diseased polish. Myth appears as theatrical props akin to Matthew Barney, while monumentality from rubble recalls Huma Bhabha. The glass slabs register fragility and potential shattering. Bioluminescent color is embedded in fused and cut tubes of glass, with concrete bases and metal components.

Read at Vulture