Life is a dream
15/09/2021 - 23/10/2021
Malgosia Jankowska
In Life is a Dream, Malgosia Jankowska revisits one of her pictorial leitmotifs, the landscape. The fine brushstrokes of watercolor and Indian ink contrast people and nature. The discourse between the protagonists and the space in which they are set is developed in paintings of great depth. In them, the intense reddish tones coexist with the white mist that floods the Polish artist’s landscapes.
In addition, for this exhibition Malgosia introduces a new series. She takes one of the classic motifs of art history, the still life, but represents it in a new way. Malgosia wants to honor the historiography of the format by keeping its classical components and bringing in innovative tints, taken from different cultures and connected to each other creating new connections.
Many of the motifs depicted that are present in the drawings have a past in the history of art and have symbolic meaning. Perhaps the most evident motif in Jankowska’s work is that all-embracing nature. Nature connects with symbolism, but according to the artist, it also connects with us, contemporary people.
The artist’s new series with the presence of still lifes, leaves through the jungle scene and the prints of her native Poland. However, the mysterious aura that carries her gesture does not lose definition. The high detail of his painting generates a game of veiling and unveiling in which his protagonists seem to be hidden in a disturbing atmosphere waiting to be discovered.
Malgosia deploys her technique on a white background, where the characteristic reddish monochrome is reminiscent of the engravings of old storybooks. In the artist’s universe the different elements acquire fantastic tints: a nature that devours, marine species that coexist with birds… But above all the contemporary still life, as the artist defines, that reflects a secret world of the subconscious.