Wioletta Jaskólska
ARCHIVE EXHIBITION
THE CITY EN GRISAILLE / EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY WIOLETTA JASKÓLSKA
Artist: Wioletta Jaskólska
Venue: Galeria 101 Projekt, Nowy Świat 53
Date: 06.12.-09.01.2015
For the last several years, the main motive in Wioletta Jaskólska‘s paintings has been the cityscape. She 'portrays' foreign cities like Paris, Birmingham, Siena, Lisbon, and Salzburg, but also native cities such as Warsaw and Lidzbark. 'The city en grisaille' is an exhibition of works from the recent period of 2013-14. They are mainly landscapes from Warsaw and Lodz; views presented both in a broad frame, from a bird’s eye perspective, and also individual objects or single architectural details. The Warsaw cityscapes commemorate images that no longer exist - modernist, or functional architecture that was characteristic of the style of the People's Republic of Poland: wide streets with a stream of anonymous silhouettes, or empty squares. The artist paints Warsaw with great fondness, trying to recall the memories of childhood. She uses photographs and postcards, which help her recall past images. The palette is basically limited to two colors, which emphasizes the purity of functionalist architecture. By showing specific historical beauty of a bygone era, the artist provides a tribute to architectonic objects, whose negative origins have caused them to be underestimated for years. In the case of Lodz, Jaskólska is intrigued by aerial views of urban plans, the ‘geometry‘ of the city, the street grid forming the inner bloodstream. Both large and intimate paintings are confined to a monochromatic spectrum of bright white, silver gray and black. Created en grisaille, the works give the impression of having been painted hastily, sketchily, with the textures of the brushwork visible and apparent. Despite the minimalist form and a limited range of colors, the cityscapes of Jaskólska possess the dynamism and luminosity of color.
Magdalena Durda-Dmitruk
Wioletta Jaskólska (ur. 1969 r., Lidzbark Warmiński)
She studied at the Faculty of Arts Pedagogical University in Olsztyn and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin. She received a diploma in graphics in 1995 in Professor M. Snoch's atelier. In 2003 she defended her doctorate, and in 2010 completed her habilitation in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. From 1995 she worked at the Pedagogical Universityu in Olsztyn, in Professor Wojciech Sadley’s atelier. Currently she is a Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, and teaches painting and drawing. She was the receipt of scholarship in Paris in 2001 (Fonds d'Aide scholarship Aux Lettres Polonaises Independantes scholarship), and in Rome in 2002 (Fondazione Giovanni Paolo II scholarship). She has trained in easel painting, painting on silk and drawing, and she is also involved in interior design. She has had 38 solo exhibitions and about 80 group exhibitions at home and abroad.