From Venice With Love — ORAC Gallery at Spectrum Miami 2024

From Venice With Love was ORAC Gallery’s curated presentation of paintings by Józef Krzysztof Oraczewski at Spectrum Miami 2024. Developed in dialogue with the artist’s contemporary Venetian exhibition Carnival Biennale Mask, the project carried an inquiry into identity, authenticity and artistic freedom from Venice to Miami. The two presentations were connected by a central question: what do we reveal, and what do we conceal, when identity becomes an image?

In Oraczewski’s paintings, the mask is more than an emblem of Venetian carnival. It marks a threshold between inner experience and public appearance — a form capable of protecting, disguising and exposing the self. Through this recurring motif, the works explore the tension between individual expression and the roles imposed by social expectations. Carnival becomes a visual language for considering the possibility of authenticity within systems of representation.

Presented during Miami Art Week, From Venice With Love extended this conversation to a different audience and cultural setting. The passage between Venice and Miami was integral to the curatorial proposition: artworks do not simply travel between places; they acquire new relationships through context and encounter. The Miami exhibition made this movement visible, allowing the questions first articulated in Venice to unfold in another international art environment.