Agnieszka Apoznańska "Nobody's Property"

11 - 22.05.2023

Curators: Kama Zboralska, Boguslaw Deptuła

Boleslaw Biegas Museum, 51 Jerozolimskie Avenue, Warsaw

Mia ART Gallery invites you to Agnieszka Apoznańska's solo exhibition "Property of No One". The exhibition will present the artist's latest works, which are a story about unnecessary and forgotten objects.

Nobody's Property

In her new series "Nobody's Property" Agnieszka Apoznanska focused on immortalizing things whose origin is not obvious.

She focused on ceramic figurines, once the decoration of serviettes, night tables, secretaires... Fashion has passed and the former object of desire, has become only synonymous with bourgeois tastes. For the former owners a memory, not always obvious. Agnieszka Apoznanska's previous series was the story of a rag doll with a porcelain head - a gift from her mother, which caused as much joy as fears, insecurities and unsatisfied longing. Although it belonged to her, in reality it became an object only to be admired. She provoked comparisons, she also wanted to be so pretty, dressed up, wearing jewelry. Now the inspiration came from figurines found at antique fairs, auctioned off at online auctions - with no history, no past. They are a challenge for the artist, a pretext for spinning various theories about their origin, about whether they witnessed happy moments or just dramas themselves? Perhaps, like her doll, they were part of a childhood world full of dreams?

These nobody's, stray objects become necessary again thanks to Agnieszka Apoznanska. The artist restores their dignity. After all, they also have a soul....

Porcelain figures with faces - masks, although they seem fragile, defenseless hide deeply hidden secrets. With cold ceramic colors, some with perfectly painted details, others almost abstract, fuzzy, unreal as if summoned from beyond worlds. Drawn with mist, devoid of contours - a technical procedure eagerly exploited by the painter.

Exploited concrete motif so important in the work of every artist is also for Agnieszka Apoznanska a pretext for explorations, experiments in color, composition. New formal solutions. The artist expresses herself with equal success in large formats, as well as in definitely smaller ones - workshop-perfectly refined. The greatest influence on the painting sensitivity of Agnieszka Apoznanskaya was the opportunity to see live the old masters - Diego Velazquez, Jusepe de Ribera, Francisco de Goya and Francisco de Zurbaran.

As the artist admits, painting is for her first and foremost a language that helps her experience and understand the phenomena around her. She treats it as a personal philosophy, self-reflection. It allows her to analyze her own thoughts and emotions. - She distances herself from them and dissects them. This process can be compared to a kind of psychotherapy session. Choosing subjects for paintings, painting objects, I analyze my own attitude to them, the need to own and belong to objects," says the artist.
"Nobody's Property" is a continuation of the Artist's previous musings on the need to value the objects surrounding a person. When put up for sale, they are in a kind of limbo - their value changes drastically - from collector's, nostalgic, commemorative objects, they are zeroed out and exposed to new contexts. A new phase of their lives begins.
The artist also reflects on her need to produce ever-new objects such as oil paintings. - When creating object-paintings, I am aware that I lose the bond with these objects as soon as the painting process is finished. For me they are of value only during their creation, then they become an object open to further analysis in the eyes of the viewers. It is important to me that each of the objects I create creates a link with the viewer and exists each time anew with the next viewer, and I hope also makes them reflect," adds Agnieszka Apoznańska.

Kama Zboralska

Agnieszka Apoznańska (1995) - Graduate of painting in the studio of Prof. Łukasz Huculak at the E. Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. She defended her diploma in 2020. In 2022 she was ranked 16th in the Compass of Young Art. Scholarship holder of the President of Wroclaw and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Winner of the GRAND PRIX of the POSTAWY 7 painting competition (2021). She lives and works in Wroclaw.