“As a child of an immigrant family, I grew up hearing stories from relatives about the past and learning how to preserve tradition. My identity is formed from all these stories that I never lived.”

Exhibiting for the first time at Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Uruguayan mixed media artist, Elián Stolarsky, presents “Tracing Silence” an inaugural solo- exhibition that deals with concepts of memory, migration, loss, and history. Marked by stories of her grandparents’ inexorable migration to Uruguay as a result of religious persecution, Stolarsky’s work focuses on the destruction of war, the resulting diaspora and familial reverberations that ensue. This thematic thread resonates significantly throughout Stolarsky’s artistic production. Her work consists of highly individual narratives that are often constructed from seemingly inconsequential found materials such as family photographs, postcards, and hand-sewed fabric. She intentionally overlaps fiction by combining images and objects from the archives of her own history with that of found materials. Ultimately, Stolarsky reimagines her identity by providing a unique “tracing” into her family mythology.

Full Press Release

Exhibition Portfolio