CURATORIAL PROGRAMME #6
TAKOTSUBO
13.01.2023—24.02.2023

Zuzanna Janin, Grzegorz Pieniak

Curators: Romuald Demidenko, Aleksandra Szkoda

We juxtapose works by sculptor and performative artist Zuzanna Janin (b. 1961) and painter Grzegorz Pieniak (b. 1994) created mainly over the last two years — both are materially distant from each other and address different approaches to visual representation.

And even if they seem to be more separating than uniting, when looking at the works shown close to each other, commonalities can be found: the need to give a new meaning to situations that seem familiar, to look at them closely, and perhaps even an encouragement to recognise the need to observe for oneself.

Zuzanna Janin’s works, created in various media, testify to the attempt, important to her work, to almost literally capture the fragile and the taboo, and in most of her works they contain autonomous narrative strands to which the artist gives a universal dimension. Grzegorz Pieniak’s figurative paintings are representative of a world that questions corporeality and distorts clichés of masculinity. Most of the artist’s paintings, in a “bachanal” atmosphere, are based on photographic images and sketches, transferred to the canvas in an almost unreal way, reflecting the inaccuracy of the artist’s memories and his strong experiences.