Image by Maria Szkop. Source: Kolonie Gallery
Maria Szkop's works come together as a catalalogue of fundamental observations and experiences, along with a private topography of those places and people most important to her
The artist uses personal experience to establish links between specific points in time, objects and people to bestow them with a particular value and move them out of the anonymous space of random objects and bare landscapes. She claims there are no grand ideas or theories in her works and she avoids overcomplicating her subjects. She invites her viewers to become engaged in the collection she presents, perhaps offering up their own personal experience in order to bring new, individual meanings to the images she has captured.
Maria Szkop's art is feminine in its emotional and intimate aspects, but it's not quite feminist art. Still, Szkop doesn't shy from these labels, acknowledging the strength in creating strong, independent narratives by women artists and using that to move her subjects further into the universal realm.
The current show at the Kolonie Gallery presents a show of paintings and photographs of mysterious jungles and vibrant landscapes that owe a great deal to a deft hand in lighting and shadow.
Maria Szkop (born in 1980, based in Warsaw) is an artist whose works indicate a strong affiliation with the traditional canvas, maintaining a strong conviction in the artificiality of art. She claims that even the most perfect technique can't reveal the truth about reality. "The more perfect, the more artificial", says the artist and that is precisely the attitude she follows in creating her works, embracing the theatricality of art and its unbreakable façade.
The show is on at the Kolonie Gallery between the 23rd of March - 28th of April.
Galeria Kolonie
ul. Bracka 23 m. 52
tel.: 668303303
www.galeriakolonie.pl
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: Kolonie Gallery