Izabela Rogucka
The experience of two scholarships abroad, in Granada and Vienna, brought serious changes to her artistic work. The beginning of her painting adventure was marked by a direct observation of nature, followed by narrowing the picture frame to charming portraits of old tenements with rhythmically accentuated windows. She managed to disturb the rhythm by changing colours or opening some of the window shutters. She occasionally inserted a lonely figure leaning against the railing of one of the balconies. What preoccupies her now is an attempt to describe the philosophically understood space. The space which – as she puts it herself – is limited by both physical boundaries and the emptiness over the horizon. She creates her artistic world mainly using architectural images whose value undergoes changes as time goes by. She is particularly fascinated with the architectural idea which in its unrealized form appeals to our imagination to an especially large extent in the form of design blueprints. Her fascination with this type of concepts was aroused when she first came across Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, his abortive design of prison architecture. She shows the horror and decorativeness of oppressive architecture. She is a skilful user of computer software, allowing her to design buildings and fortifications, which she then bestows with new meanings. She alters and multiplies perspectives, thanks to which we can see more. She is creative both in the visual and verbal sense – “the uncertainty space” is one of the original terms she uses to describe the forgotten architecture of Podlasie, the region she comes from. She also refers to natural architecture, e.g. in the series “Discomfort in Nature”, inspired by Austrian landscapes copied by Walt Disney in his first animated movies, as well as “Please Love Austria” – a spontaneous set of sketches arranged in an elliptic form. In the triptych “Glyphs”, she builds internal-external relationships in an interesting way by blending the tradition of folk cut-outs and architectural narration based on the projections and views of Vienna’s major buildings, as the author herself puts it. Her other words probably best express the reasons why she decided to take up art in the first place: “(...) my main fields of inspiration are the impression of contemporary digital landscape and human relationships. My art is meant to be a remedy for today’s loss of perspective in the modern-day digitised landscape. A journey through the microcosm allows me to define my own attitude towards the world and its condition.”
In her recent painting quest, Iza Rogucka is close to turning the sign into her credo, seeing its function as a subconscious transfer of meanings.
Andrzej Zdanowicz
Izabela Rogucka
Education
- Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Paweł Althamer’s Master Class, currently Julian Göthe’s, 2010-2013
- Academy of Fine Arts, Poznań, Faculty of Painting (MA Diploma in Prof. Andrzej Zdanowicz’s 4th Painting Studio, 19 June 2012), 2007-2012
- Socrates-Erasmus scholarship, Granada University, 2008-2009
- Academy of Fine Arts, Poznań, Department of Interior Architecture (MA Diploma in Maciej Basałygo’s Studio, June 2010), 2004-2010
Individual exhibitions:
- Discomfort in Nature, Raumacht Gallery, Ebensdorferstrasse 8, Vienna, 2012-2013
- O- -O- -O- -O, diploma exhibition, Poznań International Trade Fair, 2012
- Earthly and Heavenly Love, Ludwik Zamenhof Centre, Białystok, 2011
- On the Border of Temperatures, Rotunda Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts (currently University of Arts) in Poznań, 2008
- Mar Adentro, Milanówek (Open Gardens Festival), 2007
Collective exhibitions:
- Reisebüro (Travel Agency), Donaucitykirche, Donaucitystrasse 2, Vienna, 2013
- Out of Control Festival, Białystok, 2011
- Blue Banana, Praterstern, Schnellbahnviadukt 33-35, Vienna, 2011
- Interior, Green Carrot Gallery, Warsaw, post-competition exhibition, 2011
- Artenalia Festival of Student Culture, Old Abattoir, Poznań, 2010
- What We Love, BWA Białystok, post-plein-air exhibition, 2009
- Exhibition of the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts (currently University of Arts) in Poznań, Focault’s Pendulum Gallery, Poznań, 2007
- SAMSUNG Art Master, CSW Warsaw, post-competition exhibition, 2007
- C.A.L.V.I.N.O, Aula Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts (currently University of Arts) in Poznań, 2006
Workshops and residences:
- Public Room, Sarajevo, Artistic Residences Programme, 2014
- Illustration and Illumination, EASA Žužemberk, Slovenia (tutor), 2013
- Of Donkeys and Basilisks – Low Tech Prototyping and the Process of Design, co-operation with the architectural agency Mostlikely, Vienna Design Week, Vienna, 2012
- Through a Glass, Darkly, Rodney Place’s performance workshop, Rennweg 40, Vienna, 2012
- Participation in Classical Sculpture in Contrapposto, a workshop conducted by Paweł Althamer, Viennafair, Vienna, 2011
- Art plein-air White Tower, Białowieża National Park, in collaboration with the Open Art Projects Foundation and Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, 2010
- What We Love, International Art Plein-Air in Ciechanowiec, curator: Andrzej Strumiłło, Stopka Foundation, 2009
- Workshops of the Intermedia and Photography Studio in collaboration with Dominik Lejman’s Painting Studio, Kaliningrad, Russia, 2009
- C.A.L.V.I.N.O, international graphic and photography workshops, Vilnius, 2006
Achievements:
- Minister of Culture and National Heritage Artistic Scholarship, 2001-2012
- Mayor of Białystok Artistic Scholarship for the project Earthly and Heavenly Love dedicated to the painter Jerzy Nowosielski, 2011
- Second Prize in the architectural competition RE-Vita Wielkopolsko – revitalization of post-industrial buildings, for the project “Co-working: Rent-a-Desk. Revitalization of the Old Abattoir Complex in Poznań”, 2010
- Minister of Culture and National Heritage Artistic Scholarship for the project Blind Date, 2009
- Prima Inter Pares, 2008
