Since June 30th, 2009, the Brda Gallery working under the auspices of the Municipal Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz will present an exhibition of painting by Jolanta Kuszaj.
The artist showed two painting cycles: „Prowokujące pudełka” (Provoking Boxes) and „Finlandia” (Finland)
„Finlandia” is a cycle of six paintings created as a result of my observations from that country during a holiday there in August 2008. My first contact with Finland made me feel extremely empty, lonely, maybe isolated. I felt lack of contact between people. Architecture, that is the creation and mark of human activities in Helsinki and – as it turned out later – in all of Finland is simple, low, but functional. One can feel the influences of Swedish and Russian cultures, with simultaneous orientation towards modernity. Apart from residential buildings, we see here many museums, churches, castles, parks, squares, as well as monuments and other symbols. (…) As to the architecture-man relationship that I am interested in, here it seems that architecture is ancillary. It doesn’t overwhelm, but creates order, respects culture and history, is functional. Lack of human figures in my paintings is not so much the result of my feeling of lack of community among the Finnish, but of my need to mark and strengthen the traces of civilization presence of human being. (Jolanta Kuszaj)
„Prowokujące pudełka” (Provoking Boxes) is the continuation of the man-architecture subject. Multitude of perspectives was created as the result of light reflecting in a window, it results in a completely different dimension. This is my contemplation of it and the moment of realising my own needs related to relaxation, but also my own intellectual, ćsthetic and creative experiences. I enrich it or simplify with my point of view, create it according to my own vision that’s in me. (…) In painting I steer towards synthetic take of reality, by using appropriate colours, smooth texture, and, most of all, the sheer presentational form of an architectural detail and a man. There’s a motif of flaming, disturbing the convergent perspective and presenting it from various angles, arrangements, resulting from aforementioned journeys by tram or bus… where in a single reflection one can see several similar or completely different images overlapping or coexisting next to each other. Sometimes it happens that traces, borders between them blur, but looking at them for a long time, one begins to shape a completely different picture. (Jolanta Kuszaj)
Jolanta Kuszaj was born in 1983 in Leżajsk, graduated with honours at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Toruń: Painting (2008) and Graphics Art (2009). Awards and honours: Papal Competition – diploma and gold medal; Christian Culture Days – 2nd Award in Graphics Competition; 2000 – an award for the „Naga – Magnolia” (Naked – Magnolia) graphics in a national competition; Bydgoszcz 2001, „Zawsze zielono, zawsze niebiesko” – an award in a competition; Toruń, Ex Libris Regional Museum in Bydgoszcz- qualified for post-competition exhibition, catalogue, Bydgoszcz 2008, Samsung Art Master, Anna Dymna’s Foundation „Mimo Wszystko” – a charity auction; catalogue, 2008; „Painting, Graphics Art, Drawing, Sculpture” BWA Rzeszów; qualified for the post-competition exhibition, Catalogue, Rzeszów 2008; National Review of Young Painting PROMOCJE 2007/2008; catalogue; Art Gallery Legnica 2008; „Codzienność” – post-competition exhibition, catalogue, ?ory 2009; Individual exhibitions: Ukrzesłowione”- an individual exhibition of painting; Toruń „Prowokujące pudełka” an individual exhibition of painting; Toruń 2008; „Zaciekawienia” an individual exhibition of drawings; Toruń 2008.
The exhibition will be open till November 3rd, 2009.