Julia Kowalska
Fresh off the graduate art scene at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (which she finished with a distinction), Polish artist Julia Kowalska is now a rising art world star. Whilst her practice includes a wide variety of media, such as digital forms and sculptures, oil painting has been her favourite since childhood. Within her budding oeuvre, the discourse on human existence and relationships is central to her practice. She constantly seeks tactile moments lined with emotional perceptions and explores the ambivalent nature of bodily existence.
Julia Kowalska
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Throughout her studies, Julia was constantly drawn to the style and practice of two artists: the Swiss painter Miriam Cahn and the Polish photographer Joanna Piotrowska. Cahn’s unique style of painting has a profound influence on Julia’s visual style, inspiring her to develop a technique of utilising light, luminous brushwork. The resultant effect added a unique texture to her paintings that maintained a soulful aura, mainly when working with light pinks and midnight blues. Through Piotrowska’s enigmatic work, Julia was introduced to new ideas surrounding personal memory and repetitive themes of bodies, which would become vital to her creative focus.
Degree show, July 2022, image courtesy to the artist, Sklep Galeria Karowa.
Between 2021 and 2022, Julia has already been featured in several group shows. She has also had two solo exhibitions - a considerable achievement, having only completed her graduate degree show in July this year. However, as an exciting young artist, it is unsurprising that her talents were spotted early on. Her participation in the Hotel Warszawa Art Fair in September was the catalyst for her national recognition.
This October, Julia had her first international showcase, Under the Jaguar Sun group show, at Kravitz Contemporary in London. This exhibition featured six young artists who use traditional paintings to question the notion of experienced reality.
Pleasant to touch, like talc powdered inside, 2022, Oil on canvas, 120cmx100 cm
Also, within this short period, she has received awards and nominations in various domestic competitions, including Contemporary Lynx Award and 4 Fangor’s National Painting Contest. Such national acclaim certainly brings much excitement for 2023…
When first looking at Julia's body of work, it is clear that the colour blue holds great significance. In her most recent creations, large sections of deep marine blue were set as a thematic background. On top of this is a gentle veil created by a translucent, dreamlike shade of white that subtly illuminates the canvas with a non-earthly brilliance.
Instead of explaining this setting, Julia wittingly encourages spectators to use their sensibility to comprehend such ambiguity. In nature, blue is the colour of the sea, signifying the very beginning of life; moreover, under this context, the imaginary gleam of the afterlife.
With the dreamy background features now established, Julia then inserts the characters. Mainly comprising forms of human and horse-like figures, they are typically rendered in pinkish nude, a colour most reminiscent of the notions of nudity, embryo, vulnerability and rebirth. The enigmatic and ephemeral character of subconscious perception embeds her works in the sense of repetitive disorientation.
Adding to this unusual visual experience, the figures' ambivalent gestures and expressions sensually discuss the complexity of mutual relations based on emotional dependencies and divergent affections. The way she frames her subjects can almost be described as gentle, as if softly and secretly leading us to a profoundly intimate realm intertwined with flesh and soul, life and death, existence and demise.
Selected Exhibitions:
2022
“miłe w dotyku, jakby otalkowane wnętrze /pleasant in touch, like talc powdered inside”, Sklep Galeria Karowa, Warsaw.
“Under the Jaguar Sun”, Kravitz Contemporary, London.
“Space to divide”, Polish Institute, Bratislava.
Hotel Warszawa Art Fair with Śmierć Człowieka Gallery.
2021
“wszystkie uczucia zostają obezwładnione / all feelings became overpowered”, Szewska 16 Gallery, Poznan.
“Ciało pandemiczne / Pandemic body”, Salon Akademii, Warsaw.
2020
Nieprawidłowości / Abnormalities, Jazdów, Warsaw.
Awards:
2022
Contemporary Lynx Award on “Nowy Obraz - Nowe Spojrzenie” Contest, Poznan.
Nomination on 4 Fangor’s National Painting Contest, Gdansk.
Zihui Li
Emerging Artists Co-editor, MADE IN BED