MINIMALISM, CONSTRUCTION, STRUCTURE

Exhibition ,,MINIMALISM, CONSTRUCTION, STRUCTURE - concept in creative process'', Tymczasowa Art Gallery, Warsaw, Poland, 2018.

,,MINIMALISM, CONSTRUCTION, STRUCTURE – concept in creative process.”, June/August 2018, Tymczasowa Art Gallery.

Artists: Sylwia Żółkiewska / Anita Owsianna

Curator: Joanna Pongowska

Text & photo credits: Joanna Pongowska

 

Third exhibition at Tymczasowa Art Gallery titled ,,Minimalism, Construction, Structure – concept in creative process” presents works of Anita Owsianna and Sylwia Żółkiewska – artists who consciously use precisely selected artistic resources, staying in the trend of simple forms of minimalism, monochromatics, power of signs, structure and construction. Selection of painting techniques is directly connected to the conceptual philosophy and the dynamics of lifes of the artists. Both are creating subjective visual code. Their art direct the viewers feelings towards contemplation, calmness, analysis and retension, at the same time reversing that process to the artist. Both artists process their own experiences or observations, using raw means of expression, eliminating the excess of complicated rhythms, arranging their own, clear space in both the creative and life process. The recipient focuses on contemplating the arrangement of shapes, structures or contrasting signs and a trace amount of colors, discovering the specifics of a given visual code having its own rhythm. As in constructivism, the artists refer to forms, structures and spatial architectural constructions ubiquitous around us – inanimate, solid, structured, rather monochromatic forms, subjected, however, to certain processes of natural forces of nature – corrosion, layering, decolorization, destruction, degradation and reconstruction.

Anita Owsianna’s work is characterized by consistency and steadfastness, both in the raw art workshop and in the conceptual content. The fact of limiting the palette to a monochromatic and minimalistic, or giving up figurativeness from the beginning of the creative path draws attention, especially afer a closer look at the philosophy, areas of inspiration and struggles of the artist on a creative and life level. The artist creates closed series of paintings and objects. Each cycle closes the certain stage of life and creation level, dffering from each other in subtle or striking details. Each subsequent series create a coherent set, but also remains in a dialogue with the previous one – showing the path and process to which the author succumbs, and thus her work. The leading series presented at the exhibition are Past-else – a series of acrylic paintings on canvas, created in 2017. The large-format series of paintings and spatial objects are complemented, among others, by the Collages. Graphic, contrasting, minimalistic, small paper forms show the coherence and maturity of the concept and the essence of the artist’s creative process.

Paintings presented by Sylwia Żółkiewska at the exhibition come from several series such as: Constructions, Surfaces or Lab (initiated in 2015, still in process). These are thoughtful and consecutively conceived creative activities that reflect the artist’s observations and inspiration with the industrial external world and the dynamics of civilization processes. Structure, surface analysis, dialogues of nature processes juxtaposed with industrial constructions and processes of destruction, construction and deconstruction, complementation and layering of the matter. Color pallete of the artworks is limited – mainly grey, black and white, graphic, other colors appear very slightly, dominant element are signs. Some fragments are taken straight from nature, such as sand, a ecting the structure and weight of art objects, followed by other experimental media, used by artist to build a structure that reminds reliefs. The artist is inspired by apparent ugliness, traces of human activity or other organic forms, the infltration of inanimate urban components with the interfering nature.

The artists’ work combines the selection of artistic means – the purely visual layer seems to be very close, they move in similar currents of monochromatics, minimalism, gameplay, divisions, constructions, moreover, for each important element is a conscious and conceptual creation process. Upon closer examination, we notice significant differences, both workshop, conceptual and personality. The inspiration for Sylwia Żółkiewska is the dynamics of the external world, which she processes according to her own artistic visions, while reflecting in them her expressive character and openness of the process. In the case of Anita Owsiana, inspiration to some extent also comes from the outside world, but it is a much more internal, personal record of her emotions, transferred according toher own visual code and complex creative processes, closed at individual stages, to which the artist does not return.

Joanna Pongowska, Curator, Tymczasowa Art Gallery