Agnieszka Sowisło
Born in 1988 in Poznań, from 2007-2012 studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, specializing in easel painting (Prof. Marek Przybył’s studio). She currently runs the Kontrapunkt Gallery of Contemporary Art in Poznań.
A diploma student of painting in Prof. Marek Przybył’s studio, she also owns and runs the Kontrapunkt Gallery in Poznań. Her first series of paintings concentrates on the underwater world. This should come as no surprise as the artist’s CV mentions her fascination with diving, supported by professional training and two year’s experience of running a diving camp. Her painting is impulsive. Apart from diving, she loves skiing and travelling. She paints the places she has seen and which have left a lasting impression on her because this is the only way in which she is able to tell their stories. And they seem to be worth the effort. She makes a clear distinction between illustrative art and painting. In painting, she uses elements of the reality she observes, but above all she tries to express the ambience and character of the place.
The interesting, seldom explored underwater theme from her post-diploma works takes us to places which look like enchanted lands from a fantasy novel or stage settings from fairy-tale theatre plays. The author’s intention here is to transfer the viewer to the realm of emotions. We see sunken cities illuminated by subdued light, resembling Atlantis, or watch ships hiding some secret tales. Everything seems timeless and the timelessness is twofold. Firstly, it results from the unlimited effect of the painting itself in time, and secondly – from the topic chosen by the author. Time passes more slowly under water.
The author is fascinated with William Turner and works according to the principle of building the picture with light. In her paintings, light is a creative factor, but with destructive power as well. When painting her underwater pictures, Agnieszka explored the colour blue, called the “heavenly colour” by Kandinsky – it gives spiritual comfort, calms down, has a soothing and focussing effect. Using it in her paintings, the artist personally felt it emanate with intensity, temperature and plushiness. The process of painting itself was – as the artist herself claims – leisurely, relaxing, gentle. It introduced equilibrium. The reasons to paint were not always similar, but the colour seemed invariably, dramatically peaceful. The artist realizes the psychological effect of colour and takes advantage of it in her “underwater” pictures. According to her, perception depends on the colour and its reception. Colours convey a mysterious power and finding the right combinations, tensions, intensities is an open scenario in real-time painting. Gradually, other colour schemes begin to play main roles in the artist’s works, the gamut of juxtapositions and saturations gets complicated. Those pictures mark the emergence from water as new painting experiences are needed now. New challenges. It is a transitional period between the underwater series and the ones to appear soon.
The works presented here originate from two separate cycles. One is a continuation of the diploma project, refers to the underwater world, and is called “Exits”. The other, new one, brings us to the world that most of us experience on a daily basis, which the author calls “the air world”. Those pictures are from the “Entrances” series, prepared after the artist’s stay in France. The colours strike with double impact in Agnieszka’s works now. Those which have so far played a minor role in her painting gain a new psychological meaning. The yellows give satisfaction, browns introduce stability, while reds build tension. Obviously, she is far from giving up her favourite, soothing blue. Looking at the new cycle, it is hard not to see references to the art of the great surrealists, most certainly to Giorgio de Chirico. In those paintings, the suspension of time is clear, causing a sense of loneliness and inevitability of fate. They display more dynamics and joy of colour. The other cycle is about emerging from water to the surface. It is a hymn of the light and colour so different from the reflections we can observe under water. With those two cycles, Agnieszka Sowisło allows us to see the clash of two worlds – water and air. The scattered, fluid and misty reality suddenly becomes very clear, intensive and tumultuous, to quote the artist’s own words. The two cycles are observed transitions distinguishing two different realities.
Andrzej Zdanowicz
