Agnieszka Żak - Biełowa

Dolce Vita (2009)

Program: Vernissage Pavilion B Friday (19.03) 09:00 p.m.

Agnieszka Żak-Biełowa – made her diploma at the Faculty of Painting of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of prof. Jarosław Modzelewski. Achievements: Dyplom 2007, im. prof. Józefa Szajny – funded by Mazowieckie Voivod, on the initiative of prof. Józef Szajna
and Galeria Studio, the prize – a scholarship funded by Mr. Dariusz Wasylkowski.

Dolce Vita is a series of images of different topics which common denominator is fascination with kitsch phenomenon, pop culture and the symbolism used by mass media. The inspiration for this project comes from the Oksana Zabużko`s book: Field Work in Ukrainian Sex. Images from this series relate to world of advertising, billboards and media. Everything here can be redrawn and overemphasized, the grotesque merges with the absurdity and the kitsch combines with art. Trough the exploitation of such symbols, it becomes possible to create a collective portrait of society, self-condemned to clumsiness and carelessness, also in the sphere of privacy and intimacy. Employing the means of expression inspired by fairy tales, hyperrealism, exaggerating and highlighting certain cultural phenomena, she wants to capture a moment of reality, stop for a while, reflect on our history – marked by wars, uprisings and a long way to independence. She is interested in the way the issues of small homelands patriotism and local commitment are confronted with today’s globalization, voracious consumerism and capitalism. The author wants to show a social space of Warsaw – the space that constantly changes and which is seen from the perspective of a child, an adolescent girl, a teenager, a painting student, and finally, a young wife and an artist at the same time. What will be definitely considered important are the political and social issues – the fall of communism, the crazy`90s with accompanying opening of the borders and various fields of globalization entering Poland. The author’s generation can fully reap the benefits of democracy and human rights respect as first.

By seeking answers to the question what to do when everything is permissible, the author hits on lyrics of Wojciech Młynarski: W co się bawić – and by following them, she attempts to make an examination of the conscience of her generation. She is interested in how much it identifies with its cultural heritage and to what extent it chooses the American pop culture, a world created by serials’ scenarios and spotlights. Inspired by Gombrowicz`s reflection, the author wants to trace and examine the relationship between the artist – creator, and the viewer – recipient.

It seems everybody was there…

Agnieszka Żak is a young painter, who has already been recognized as the author of mature projects, touching on the issues of existential problems of border-experiences such as mental disorder, homelessness, passing away. Such a condensed subject-matter was present in the works of the diploma series Craziness is you and me raised to the n-th power, Apocalypsis, Milano. In the sphere of depiction, in Agnieszka Żak's works there are interests of widely understood visual culture reflected, with a dominating roleof the photographic image and its influence on painting. Agnieszka Żak managed to extract the essence of the topic without directly referring to the sphere of emotions, and only through contrasting it with the cold, media-like form of her paintings.

After a break that lasted a year and a half, Agnieszka Żak is coming back with her new paintings. At this stage it is still hard to unequivocally determine the final shape of her current searches. Her first paintings from the new cycle were clearly referring to the simulacrums of the mass imagination: music stage icons, the toy world and also – iconographic motives known from the history of art. However, in the themes of the next paintings a clear change towards autobiographical reflection is being marked. Agnieszka Żak makes for the memories from her childhood, this reality we were a part of, examines the relations among the relatives. She is interested in the way the mass imagination influences the shape of our feelings, and the emotional value that we add to the everyday life objects. The form of the paintings in which, just like in the previous cycles, there is a clearly distinguished relation with the photography, lacks the superficial nostalgia, that one may expect from such a subject-matter.It is rather distance that is visible here, joined with a bit of irony, even grotesque, which, however, do not deprive the paintings the rank of a personal experience. In this bold action in the realm of memories, sensations and experiences – bold because a seemingly inadequate form used to deal with auto reflection is used – the most profound value of Żak’s painting is enclosed. What also attracts the attention is the open, unimpeded form, in which photographicality still dominates, but there are also new searches marked in the scope of enriching the painting structure through collage and drawing.
Magdalena Wicherkiewicz