The Praga Harbour
She debuted her works in 2012 at the now-defunct International Festival of Photography by the Young in Jarosław, where she showed her series titled The Praga Harbour. The photographs portrayed the areas on the right bank of Vistula River in Warsaw, which were to lose their unique, raw character with the approaching arrival of new residential projects. Zgierska's pictures show winter landscapes, peculiar mediocrity and progressing deterioration.
Oskoma
In old Polish this word stands for ‘appetite, desire, great wish for something,’ but also ‘teeth numbness’ in colloquial language. According to Zgierska, contemporary reality is powered by illusions and fabricated needs. Her photographs reflect on contemporaneity, within which nature has become exotic, strange.
The artist illustrates a longing for something primordial, definite, larger than her, and at the same time deals with her own fears and withdrawal. The set comprises a combination of spontaneous and staged photographs; eczema on the neck is juxtaposed with a choppy surface of water during rain.
Post
Zgierska's most awarded cycle consists of photographs staged in a small space. The works which brought her broad recognition were initially intended as illustrations of dreams, paranoias, and anxieties. The message later became more intimate, as a result of events personally experienced by the artist. Her past fears returned with double force. Her attempt to enclose her worries in an aesthetic, safe box had failed. The struggles turned out to be more immediate, while the creative distance redundant. Post is about trauma, frozen silence, and hidden tension. It is permeated by tormenting dreams and obsessions. It is the artist's attempt at forming intimate and bold connection with the viewer. Post has been exhibited in South Korea, Spain, Tunisia, and Sweden, with further shows scheduled in France and Japan.
The project earned the artist the prestigious Prix HSBC pour la Photographie in February 2016. The award included a publication of the artist's monograph by the Actes Sud publishing house and a series of exhibitions across France, curated by Diane Dufour.