The Marginalia exhibition is an attempt to draw attention to the issue of the everyday as an object of interest in art. This theme has already appeared in the works of artists of the ancient period. It featured prominently in the paintings of the small Dutch masters, then recurred in the works of the 19th-century realists, and soon afterwards – programmatically – was adapted by the Impressionists. The topicality of this theme can also be seen in 20th- and early 21st-century art – some artists (such as Edward Hopper) have even become known as painters of the everyday. The title itself refers to the so-called marginalia – i.e. drawings, notes, placed in the margins of medieval manuscripts, as well as contextually surprising, humorous decorative forms discreetly hidden in architectural objects. For the masters of the time, they were not only a kind of automatic break from the monotony accompanying the routine work of major projects, but also a kind of ‘inventory’ of their privacy.
The Marginalia exhibition brings together works (paintings and sketches) by three contemporary artists (Marcin Kędzierski, Jacek Sztuka, Agnieszka Wielewska) who are seeking their own ways of exploring and contemplating the nature of everyday life. They show that art can play a privileged role in solving the various dilemmas of modern man, caught up in his everyday life, struggling with its repetitiveness and at the same time its inevitable transience. The painterly record thus becomes an effective form of taming the everyday.
curator: Danuta Pałys

Agnieszka Wielewska, born in 1992 in Gdańsk, graduate of Painting at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (diploma in 2017), winner of the Creative Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and many other scholarships, including the Henry J.T. Doren Scholarship, the Creative Scholarship of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship, and the Cultural Scholarship of the City of Gdańsk. She was awarded for her painting diploma by the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Kraków, is a finalist of the 1st Painting Biennial Lublin Spring (2021) and the Eibisch Prize (2021),and a semi-finalist of the international Strabag Art Award 2021, nominated for the title Personality of the Year 2020 in Dziennik Bałtycki in the category Culture. Between 2011 and 2013, she also studied Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk and Art History at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Her paintings have been presented in solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad, among others in Zurich (ARTBOX.PROJECT), Debrecen in Hungary (MODEM Gallery), Kraków (Palace of Art; Promotional Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts; Wojewódzka Biblioteka Publiczna), Sopot (State Art Gallery, SOPOTEKA, BOTO Theatre), Bielsko-Biała (Galeria Wzgórze), Częstochowa (Miejska Galeria Sztuki), Warsaw (Galeria Tlen, Galeria Stalowa, MNiSW), Stalowa Wola (Regional Museum), Kazimierz Dolny, Radom and Gdańsk (Klub Żak Gallery, Tryton Business House, Sztuka Wyboru).In addition to painting, she works in poster design, illustration and film animation. In parallel, she works as a stage designer in both drama and puppet theatres – including Zwickau (Germany), Szczecin, Opole, Gdansk, Torun, Poznan, Lodz, Warsaw. In 2018, appreciated for her stage design for the play “Nie wierzę w śmierć” (I don’t believe in death), she received the Theatre Award of the City of Gdansk and was awarded as part of the 2018 Jerzy Moskal Stage Design Award competition; more info: wielewska.pl

Marcin Kędzierski, born in 1969 in Radom. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, at the Faculty of Graphics. He obtained his diploma in the Poster Studio in 1998. Between 1997 and 1998, he was a guest artist at the Faculty of Painting, in the studio of Prof. Leon Tarasewicz. He received an honourable mention for his painting entitled Oczekiwanie-czerwone (Expectation-Red) at the 36th National Painting Competition Bielska Jesień 2003. In 2008 h received an honourable mention for his painting Pod Blokiem (By the Tenement) in the Image of Public Space competition in Poznań. He is the winner of the National Painting Competition – Warszawski Pejzaż 2014 in the category Peculiarities of Warsaw for his painting Brzeska 12. He is interested in the city and its people. Banal Warsaw scenes such as a bus stop, street, underground and blocks of flats are transformed into a frame that gives an existential character to the simple characters in his paintings. He had his artistic début at the turn of the century between 1998 and 2001. Nevertheless, he abandons the journalistic nature of his work, typical of his peers, and paints stop-frames of ordinary urban observations. In his paintings, he refers to the work of Andrzej Wróblewski, Jarosław Modzelewski and Edward Hopper, among others. In 2004, he founded the Grupa Miejska ensemble for artistic commentary on city life. Since 2014, he has been broadening his spectrum of interests and forming an art group, the Bractwo św. Franciszka, where he seeks spiritual messages in his own experiences, observations of the world and nature. Together with invited artists, painters and writers, he runs a kind of mystical reportage from the present day on the Bractwo’s blog, in which, following the medieval model, image and word intermingle in the majesty of God. It is in Him that he seeks inspiration.

Jacek Sztuka – studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (1996-2001) at the Faculty of Painting in the studio of Jacek Waltoś. Scholarship stay at the Akademie der Bildende Künste in Nuremberg in the painting studio of Prof. Johannes Grützke in 1999/2000. Graduated with honours in painting under Prof. Stanisław Rodziński in 2001. Since 2012, he has been a professor at the Częstochowa University of Technology and teaches Design and Project Management. Member of the Association of Polish Artists, BVBK and IAA. The artist has taken part in 120 group exhibitions and 23 solo exhibitions. Participation in selected group exhibitions: Galerie Sonia Monti, Paris 2021, Borders Art Fair, Fragmented Identities, Venice 2021, London Contemporary Art Fair, London 2021. Author of monographs including: Jacek Sztuka, Malarstwo (Painting), Kraków 2007, Forma organiczna w przestrzeni realnej i wirtualnej (Organic form in real and virtual space), Częstochowa 2017, Życie w obrazach (Life in paintings), publication on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of creative work, MGS Częstochowa 2021, Szkic rysunkowy w procesie budowania obrazu malarskiego (Drawing sketch in the process of building a painting image), Częstochowa 2022. Selected awards include: Grand Prix at the XXII Festival of Polish Contemporary Painting, Szczecin 2009, Silesian Province Marshal’s Award for Young Artists, Katowice 2009, Nomination of Częstochowa University of Technology for the Silesian Science Award, Katowice 2021.

Beginning 15.12.2022, 7 pm
20 Gdańska St.
End 12.02.2023