Beata Rojek
Born in 1985, between 2005 and 2010 studied painting and sculpture at the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, where she received her diploma in painting supervised by Prof. Waldemar Kuczma, entitled “Orbis Sensualium Pictus. The World Understood in Pictures”. Her diploma annexe was supervised by Prof. Paweł Jarodzki in his multimedia studio. She was also granted the Socrates-Erasmus scholarship in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship (2012).
We all need myths. Beata Rojek
Beata Rojek’s painting helps illustrate the premise that all human creativity comes out of our need to play. Her sequentially arranged canvases, emitting a vibrating colour, are a show of artistic vitality, fecundity, even intemperance. Alicja Jodko, the curator of Entropia Gallery, once called Beata Rojek’s painting a mixture of comic and icon elements. This apt summary may only be supplemented by the statement that this combination is supposed to create a mythology teeming with the most fanciful beings an artistic imagination can create. Her diploma cycle, entitled “Orbis Sensualium Pictus. The World Understood in Pictures” first revealed her tendency to construct painting bestiaries.
Rojek’s artistic activity follows a few parallel disciplines: painting, mural, video, installation – each proving emotional exhibitionism based on extracting and processing unrestrained visions far removed from traditionally understood adulthood. Asked about inspirations, the artist lists religious art, holy pictures, representations of various deities, fables for adults and fairy tales for children. On the basis of this capacious assemblage, she creates her own world, full of exotic landscapes, animal hybrids, skulls and undefined creatures offered as sacrifices. In this way her idea of every exhibition or painting turned into a story is fulfilled.
The story is made up of scores of painting motifs, presented on small, medium-sized and monumental canvases. The artist juggles them freely and arranges for next exhibitions, adding spatial accents which constitute the sculpture part of her painting, ultimately creating in the gallery space a three-dimensional version of her own stories. Rojek’s pulsating worlds sometimes resemble the equally pulsating TV screen with its shuffling colourful images. The technique in which the artist creates her worlds – soft expression built on Richter-like streaks and tonal passages of colour – is a perfect match for the atmosphere of exotica and sanctity.
The artist’s latest show at Entropia, entitled “Where Were We”, comprised but a few works and it was delightful in its pure, intuitive concept, perfectly arranged in the gallery space. The exhibition was missing her characteristic bizarre creatures, presenting only their potential fragments, or rather oversized details from previous pictures – the most interesting motifs. Her gamut has changed too, the bright colours replaced by monochromatic greys. The new formal solutions reveal artistic maturity. Now the exotic streak is harmonized with delicate poetry describing the changing fantasies and fetishes.
Anna Kołodziejczyk
Beata Rojek
Born in 1985. Between 2005 and 2010 she studied painting and sculpture at the Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, where she received her diploma in painting supervised by Prof. Waldemar Kuczma, entitled “Orbis Sensualium Pictus. The World Understood in Pictures”. Her diploma annexe was supervised by Prof. Paweł Jarodzki in his multimedia studio.
She was also granted the Socrates-Erasmus scholarship in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) in 2008, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship in 2012.
Collective exhibitions:
- PO CO Art in Agora, Agora Culture Centre, Wrocław, 2013
- PO CO Women’s Day, Po Co Gallery, Wrocław, 2013
- Nomination and participation in the exhibition “New Picture/New Look”, University of Arts in Poznań, BWA Gallery in Gorzów Wlkp, 2013
- 11th International Animation Day, Entropia Gallery, Wrocław, 2012
- Out of STH. vol 3, BWA Wrocław, 2013
- “Everything Will Be All Right”, BWA Studio, Wrocław, 2012
- 10th International Animation Day, Entropia Gallery, Wrocław, 2011
- Biennale of Young Wrocław Art, Impart Wrocław, 2011
- “Architects Have Invited Artists”, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, 2011
- “Best Diplomas 2010”, Museum of Contemporary Art in Gdańsk, 2010
- “Promotions 2010”, Art Gallery in Legnica, 2010
Individual exhibitions:
- “Where Were We”, Entropia Gallery, Wrocław, 2012
- “In the Name of Love” painting exhibition, Falanster, 34 Św. Antoniego Street, 36 Szewska Gallery, 2011
- Painting exhibition, 39/40 Odrzańska Street Gallery, 2011
- Diploma exhibition “Orbis Sensualium Pictus”, EMDES Gallery, Wrocław, 2010
- “A Few Words About Myself”, G23 Gallery and OPT Wrocław, 2009
