Ewa Harabasz, "A woman overcome with emotions, Mattapan, Boston, September 2010", 2010. Photo: press materials
In her work presented at the Le Guern Gallery, Ewa Harabasz broaches the matter of Caravaggio's influence on press photography
Her paintings and drawings are revamped famous photographs of people experiencing tragic events. The artists' work captures these characters, affected by war, an earthquake or abusive violence, when they express the strongest emotions: pain, sorrow and suffering.
Do tragic events of individuals have to be presented through expressive poses and compositions taken out from historical painting? Do personal emotions and conflicts of a human being have to be shown with explicit conventions to attract the attention of others? Ewa Harabasz's work does not give a clear answer to these questions.
The artist already approached the subject of using bygone art in today's media and mass culture at the "Icons" exhibition at Le Guern Gallery (2008), where her work presented visual photographic films from mass media overlapped with religious art inspirations. Harabasz used press photos that accompanied news on wars and natural disasters, repainted it and placed on a gold background, so it began to resemble Byzantine icons or late mediaeval paintings in European Christian churches.
Ewa Harabasz - born in 1957 in Czestochowa, lives and works in New York City. During the 80's, she worked as an art conservator in Poland and Italy. After coming to the USA, Harabasz studied at the College for Creative Studies of Art and Design and received a degree from the Wayne State University (both in Detroit, Michigan). As an academic professor, she taught at several universities in the United States, currently works at the Cornell University in New York.
Opening: 8 July 2011.
The exhibition is open till the 30th of July 2011.
Le Guern Gallery
Widok 8, 00-023 Warsaw
Tel.: (22) 690 69 69
Fax: (22) 690 69 70
gallery@leguern.pl
www.leguern.pl
Source: press release