Alicja Kwade Traps Time in Perception-Warping Exhibition

On view at Pace Gallery in New York now, Alicja Kwade’s “Telos Tales” offers a hypnotic and sensory-heightening experience of material, movement and time. Born in Poland and currently living/working in Berlin, Alicja Kwade is a master at fusing nature, technology, and perceptual glitches in a range of material, and now with her first solo exhibition at Pace Gallery, presents new monumental sculpture and confounding glass works that are not what they first appear. It’s all knit together with a sound that will give visitors even greater pause.

Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales. Pace Gallery, 508 & 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales. Pace Gallery, 508 & 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY (detail)

The first room holds 3 towering sculptures made from black powder-coated steel, greenish patinated bronze, and massive mirror-like stainless steel tubes. Here the “natural” and the “man-made” feel like they are caught mid-struggle in a three-dimensional tug-of-war, unclear which material is evolving from or becoming the other. Suspended from the ceiling to levitate within the branch-like structures, stainless-steel pipes hold glowing double-faced clocks in their interiors. The mirrored surfaces gently bend the reflection of “branches” on the outside but multiply into an infinity of duplications on the inside – clock movements multiply, directions reverse, and visually liquify.

Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales. Pace Gallery, 508 & 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY (detail)

Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales at Pace Gallery, 508 & 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY

The tallest work, titled “Causa Materialis” reaches nearly 22 feet tall, pushing beyond the main ceiling of the gallery into one of the skylights, as if currently growing into its temporary space. Another work, “Causa Formalis” literally pierces the left wall into the next room.

Alicja Kwade, PhaseChase, 2025

The next room holds 6 strange sculptures that first appear to be perfectly clear. Made from solid K9 crystal glass, each resembles something between a broken column and melting ice. Those who peer directly over the top of any sculpture will discover a surprise – the base of each is a functioning clock thats image warps into a water-like illegibility, remaining invisible from any other angle.

Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales at Pace Gallery, 508 & 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales at Pace Gallery, 508 & 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Alicja Kwade, SunderState VI (detail), 2025

Alicja Kwade, SunderState VI (detail), 2025

It was only on my second visit (and alone) that one of the most magical elements of the exhibition became apparent… and obvious once noticed: the sound. The large reflecting clocks in the first room aren’t just synced to the time of day that it is, they are synced to each other – down to the millisecond. It’s an effect and effort that results in a precisely coordinated “tick” between the three clocks every second. Here, time is both trapped and universally true. And once you are acclimated to that ticking sound, the second room feels noticeably silent. The glass works have a similar clock movement but no sound whatsoever, inviting the experience of weighted silence in the march of time.

Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales. Pace Gallery, 508 & 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY (detail)

Pace Gallery produced a must-see 3-minute film that captures the dizzying effect of the clock reflections, the works’ relationship and conversation with the city, and features commentary from both the artist and Pace CEO Marc Glimcher. Watch here.

Portrait of Alicja Kwade \\\ Photo: Doro Zinn

Alicja Kwade’s “Telos Tales” is on view through August 15th, 2025. Check the gallery website for hours as often the contemporary galleries modify their hours in the summer.

What: Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales
Where: Pace Gallery, 508 & 510 W 25^th St, New York, New York
When: May 7 – Aug 15, 2025

All images: © Alicja Kwade, courtesy Pace Gallery