Van Rij Gallery warmly invites you to the opening of the exhibition Gold Fish by Alex Urban, curated by Katarzyna Rij – a powerful and unsettling story about desires, unfulfilled longings, and the clash between dreams and reality.

Gold Fish is an exhibition about desires, unfulfilled promises, and the clash between dreams and reality. Its title alludes to the fairy-tale figure of the goldfish—a symbol of hope for a miraculous change of fortune. Alex Urban subverts this myth by examining people who were promised a world of success, beauty, and limitless possibilities, yet were denied an equal chance to achieve them. The artist focuses on figures and places existing on the margins, addressing themes of loneliness, exclusion, violence, social pressure, and the search for identity.