Joanna Mlącka
Born in 1981 in Mińsk Mazowiecki.
Joanna Mlącka’s painting is connected with an attempt to grasp the energy of an object and portray it as a metaphor of reality. The artist borrows motifs and shapes from the real world, depriving them of the current context, and then blends them with her own images, creating unexpected constellations. The pictures become surreal visions tamed by the reality of the matter which has a distinct shape and structure.
Joanna Mlącka draws her forms from the repertoire of the natural world – her paintings are filled with fragments of trees, sprouting seeds and succulent green grass. With uncanny ease, she mixes organic features with the principles of geometry represented by lines and polygons, all in an attempt to better describe reality. The diagram of a molecule, chemical formula, microscopic image – all imply an extra filter the artist puts on the unreal, metaphoric representations of fragments of nature.
Mlącka’s intense painting seems to be looking for a connection between the spiritual and material spheres. In a subtle way, it distils natural forms to express them in a fluid, twinkling form of a metaphor of unstable times. As an astute observer, she chooses things that are used up, abandoned, transferred by humans to places which are totally alien to them – stripped of their default ruggedness yet intriguing in their form and history. She ennobles selected objects and elements of nature, but also shows them as parts of a whole – the world which has a clearly chemical, physical structure, but with a metaphysical element, the sense of meaning, aim of existence, place for fundamental ontological questions. The compositions, often bearing suggestive titles, become equivalents of questions on the nature of man and his surroundings. The artist uses a constructivist simplification and surrealist generalization, taking advantage of a saturated colour scheme. Her themes and technical mastery attest to a unique, conscious language.
Jakub Ciężki
Joanna Mlącka
In 2005-2010, she studied at the academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Faculty of Painting, and did a practice scholarship at the Vysoka Škola Výtvarných Umení in Bratislava.
She received her diploma with honours in Prof. Jarosław Modzelewski’s studio, annexe in photography in Prof. Grzegorz Kowalski’s studio.
Awards and distinctions:
- Nominated for the semi-finals of STRABAG ART AWARD INTERNATIONAL, 2012
- Award-winner of the ENTRY Initiative, 2011
- Prof. Józef Szajna Award, Ewa Tomaszewska Distinction for her diploma work
Individual exhibitions:
- “Essence”, Klima Bocheńska Gallery, Warsaw, 2012
- “Unknown Garden”, Promotion Gallery, Warsaw, 2012
- “Simple Stories”, Korekta Gallery, Warsaw, 2011
- “Joanna Mlącka – Painting”, Central Artistic Pool, Warsaw, 2010
Selected collective exhibitions:
- “259”, Klima Bocheńska Gallery, Warsaw, 2012
- “Winter Salon”, selection of own and invited guests’ works, Klima Bocheńska Gallery, Warsaw, 2012
- “Your Children and Fifty Plates”, Klima Bocheńska Gallery, Warsaw, 2011
- “ASP 2010 Diplomas”, independent exhibition of Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts graduates, Warsaw, 2011
- “Lazy Life, Aggressive Hope”, painting exhibition of Warsaw’s ASP graduates of the Faculty of Painting, J. Modzelewski’s studio, and Poznań’s ASP, D. Lejman’s and W. Łazarczyk’s studios, Klima Bocheńska Gallery, Warsaw, 2010
- “Promotions 2010”, 20th Polish Review of Young Painting, exhibition competition, Art Gallery in Legnica, 2010
- “Best Polish Fine Arts Diploma Works of 2010”, Gdańsk, 2010
- “Boundary Possibilities”, photography exhibition, Słowacki Institute Gallery, Warsaw, 2010
- “Kunstbrucke 2”, Young Artists from Eastern Europe, Berlin, 2008
- “Jarosław Modzelewski’s Studio”, BWA Gallery in Zielona Góra, 2007
- „Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts Student Painting”, Polish-German Youth Centre, Olszty, 2007
