Ewa Zawadzka – On the Verge of Light

O wystawie:

Xanadu Gallery invites for Ewa Zawadzka’s exhibition titled “On the Verge of Light”. The opening will take place on Tuesday May 16th 2017 at 6p.m.-9p.m. During the evening there will be excellent wines served by Lutzville brand, our guests will also have an opportunity to taste Chivas whisky. Bez Ości team will take care of culinary sensations.

The exhibition will last till June 4th 2017. Xanadu Gallery will also be open during Warsaw Night of Museums on May 20th 2017, till midnight. It will be a unique opportunity to see Ewa Zawadzka’s show.

The best questions are those without answers

Silence, that is what Ewa Zawadzka considers in her paintings. Reverie and concentration, careful contemplation. Balancing between fragments of reality and abstraction. The search for light, almost invariably successful. The artist's painting consists of structures and architecture, clearances and refractions created in her own, unique and recognisable technique, allowing the audience to immediately identify a piece as Zawadzka's.

We don't ask women about their age and neither is it polite to write about it. Let's just say that professor Zawadzka has been creating art for a long, long time. She moved from graphics to painting and eventually photography, registering certain sculpting performances in both natural and industrial environments.

In a recent conversation the artist admitted that she is longing for an absolute revolution in her art, a new chapter. As her compositions are strong, structural, perhaps even male, she now wishes to start a cycle in a very different style – delicate, nuanced, based on glazing or water colours. She is still not convinced, still searching, still hesitating; however, knowing Zawadzka I am certain that she will deliver, changing her course again and once more creating compelling, striking content. Is it even possible after so many years of constant painting? Probably not for every artist as it requires courage. Ewa Zawadzka does not lack for courage, though.

However, for now we are given an another exhibition of the artist's well known painting and photography. Her works belonging to the “Matter of Silence”cycle were shown in the best Polish and foreign galleries and museums numerous times. Some of them also belong to important public and private collections. Building this exhibition, I knew I would be enchanted by the beauty and rhythm of the author's compositions. I also knew that these feelings would be shared by everyone who would visit the exhibition. I wondered, though, if painting as familiar to me as this one would be capable of surprising me. I felt it would, for I have seen a number of professor Zawadzka's exhibitions and every one of them felt different, every one of them seduced me in a different way. Also, it was something more than just witnessing the pieces in a different context and lighting.

The key to the perception of Ewa's works is mystery, a mystery revealed every time her works are contemplated. Trivially, it could be said that the nooks and crannies , crevices and plane collapses that she paints pull us into a game where the imagination is striving to discover what is yet unrevealed, but what is hidden just behind the corner. Still, such an answer would be oversimplified. Zawadzka's painting fascinates with its ability to demonstrate the same theme in such a diverse and inconspicuous manner. Of course, Ewa was not the only one to obtain this skill. Some artists have painted the same ficus for their whole lives, never ceasing to find a painting problem and always arriving at a different solution. However, those were illustrious painters, as to dwell on a single subject for so long requires remarkable willpower, self-control and humility. It is an admission that all the previous works had failed to provide a full, exhaustive answer to the question posed. At a certain stage of their adult creation a humble artist knows that it is not always just about finding an answer, though; sometimes it is enough to just pose the question in a right way.

Agnieszka Gniotek