Julia Curyło
born 5 January 1986
In 2009, Julia Curyło graduated with honours from Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts, prof. Leon Tarasewicz’s studio and prof. Mirosław Duchowski’s Public Space Art studio.
Exhibitions:
– “Lambs of God”, large-format mural, Marymont Underground Station, Pociąg do Sztuki Gallery, Warsaw (January-March 2010)
– “Hens”, installation, Freies Museum in Berlin (December 2009), Warsaw Centrum Underground Station (January-March 2010)
– “Tulips”, installation
Hoover Square, Warsaw (September 2009)
Academy of Fine Arts courtyard, Warsaw (May 2010)
European Capital of Culture bid, Katowice (June 2010)
Kontener Art Festival, Poznań (October 2010)
No Woman No Art Festival, Poznań (November 2010)
– “Chick”, installation, Leszek Biały Square, Bydgoszcz (October 2010)
– Young Painting Review Promotions 2010, Legnica Art Gallery (November 2010)
– ”Pardons and Miraculous Visions”, individual exhibition, Wozownia Gallery, Toruń (July 2011)
– ”Magic Reality”, individual exhibition, Legnica Art Gallery (September 2011)
Awards:
– Winner of the A19 Competition, Pociąg do Sztuki Gallery, Warsaw (January 2010)
– Grand Prix of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Special Award of the BWA Gallery in Bydgoszcz, Promotions 2010, Legnica Art Gallery (November 2010)
Julia Curyło, a Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts graduate, became famous in 2010, when she created the work entitled “Lamb of God” in Warsaw’s underground. The lambs, presented as children’s balloons, caused controversy because of their exposed “private parts”. In this work, the artist clashed the image of the spiritual with the earthly, bodily, erotic. In 2010, she was also awarded Grand Prix in the young painting competition “Promotions 2010” in Legnica. Her paintings feature mainly landscapes of Warsaw, except they are covered by plastic flower-shaped balloons, giving them a surreal air of magic realism. The artist is also interested in the problem of kitsch present in our everyday reality, including tacky devotional articles, to which she often refers in her pictures. The world of artificial, plastic objects, balloons, children’s toys and church merchandise is meant to provoke a reflection on spirituality in the modern world. The author has her own, characteristic style, juxtaposing what is high (painting) with what is popular and kitchy. Her paintings show the search for God in everyday life, including God present in devotional articles and trashy church art. She is also interested in looking for God through science, hence her reference to LHC in her recent cycle – the Large Hadron Collider, supposed to help scientists in finding the smallest, so-called “God Particle” responsible for the origin of all matter. In this way, Curyło’s paintings provoke the age-long need for spirituality in the world where “God is dead”.
Izabela Kowalczyk
LHC, Cathedral, oil on canvas, 208 x 153, 2011
“My painting is intentionally unfashionable, I don’t follow accepted patterns or popular norms. I’m interested in the connection and mutual influence of the sublime and the mundane, blending elements of high culture and pop culture. I’m both into the world of mass imagination and religion. I like the picture to include a joke, ambiguity, the occasional allegory. And even though I treat my painting seriously, the message I send is often humorous.”
Julia Curyło
“The person who paints pictures entirely different from mine, in a style that is so utterly dissimilar, is Julia Curyło. She shows ambiguity in everyday life – the hypocrisy, the piousness, the perversion.”
(Prof. Leon Tarasewicz interviewed by Robert Mazurek, “Rzeczpospolita”, 14 Nov 2009)
Julia Curyło, LHC, War, oil on canvas, frame (aluminum), 158 x 225, 2011
LHC, Genesis, oil on canvas, frame (aluminum, plastic painted by airbrush), 156 x 224, 2011
LHC, Genesis, detail
LHC, War, detail
