Ewa Żuchnik
Born in 1986, studied painting and sculpture at the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (2007-2012), received her diploma in painting supervised by Prof. Piotr Błażejewski and Anna Kołodziejczyk (“Two Colours”, 2012), annexe in Prof. Paweł Jarodzki’s multimedia studio.
Colour flows. Ewa Żuchnik
Ewa Żuchnik’s art, even though concentrated on painting, often assumes the character of an installation or even a sculpture object, formed by thick layers of paint and cascading deposits. The painting structure overflows to all sorts of objects, absorbing and obliterating their shapes. In this sense, the main fetish of painting – the picture exhibited on a gallery wall, becomes secondary, a sort of mirror reflection of the other objects which constitute the installation.
The appeal of Żuchnik’s painting is based on a paradox – the potential minimalism of the picture resulting from the use of two colours only is immediately eliminated because of the immensely expressive use of contrast between black and white. Dedicated to abstraction, Ewa Żuchnik’s painting formally approaches expression, but also hyperrealism, resembling laboratory images of natural tissues. The aspect indicates connections with illusionist painting and similarly to it, Żuchnik’s works offer formal intrigue meant to deceive the senses and arouse curiosity.
The essence of the artist’s painting quest is multidimensionality. As she says herself, what attracts her is abstraction created in the process of free flow of energy through the processed object. Using chance, an indispensable part of her work methodology, she finally leads to the materialization of a previously conceived aesthetic craving. The spectacular forms are created on the groundwork of thick flexible paint poured over the surface of transparent foil. The artist forms and stretches the blots, usually without the help of a paintbrush, so that all curvatures, deposits and meanders of the flowing paint retain appropriate proportions in relation to the deliberately empty, transparent surface.
The processed matter created in this way may display characteristics of a subtle, organic substance set in space in a barely visible layer, but also of volcanic lava, irreversibly congealed in a thickly-set coat alongside its flowing track. Żuchnik’s works give an impression of motion. The surfaces, paint-covered hemispheres and objects vibrate, absorb and reflect light, shimmering and creating new after-images.
This extremely open convention of composition, requiring utmost care in order to avoid the trap of excessive spectacularity, has been mastered by Żuchnik to perfection. It is also evident in the process of arranging her own exhibitions, in which she is more likely to withdraw and eliminate works than try to impress audiences with their excess.
Anna Kołodziejczyk
Ewa Żuchnik
Born in 1986, she studied painting and sculpture at the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław (2007-2012), where she received her diploma in painting supervised by Prof. Piotr Błażejewski and Anna Kołodziejczyk (“Two Colours”, 2012), annexe in Prof. Paweł Jarodzki’s multimedia studio.
Selected collective and individual exhibitions:
- Metamorphoses, Geppert’s Flat, Wrocław, 2013
- Basic Vital Functions, Arsenal Municipal Gallery in Poznań, 2012
- Fresh Blood, competition exhibition, Socato Gallery, Wrocław, 2012
- Diploma exhibition, BWA Awangarda, Wrocław, 2012
- Final exhibition of the APH 2012 Competition, Ergo Arena, Sopot, 2012
- From Magma, CK Agora, Wrocław, 2012
- Aviaries, 1st edition, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, 2012
- Individual painting exhibition, Małgosia Gallery, Wrocław, 2011
- Longing for Tesla, Black Briefcase, BWA Design, Wrocław, 2011
- House of Change, Dzieduszycki Family Villa, Wrocław, 2011
- 1st Biennale of Young Wrocław, Impart Gallery, Wrocław, 2011
- In’n’out, Emdes Gallery, Wrocław, 2009
Competitions:
- BMW/ART/TRANSFORMS, 2012
- Fresh Blood, Socato Gallery, 2012
- Hestia Artistic Journey, 2012
- 1st Biennale of Young Wrocław, Impart Gallery, 2011
