Jadwiga Maziarska

Opening reception: 22.06, 6 p.m.

Special involvement: Zofia Kulik and Józef Robakowski

Jadwiga Maziarska's (1913-2003) paint-sculptural and structural work is unusually variegated. It melds the experiences of the prewar Kraków Group and consciousness of seeing that approaches that of Strzemiński. This individual exhibition is an unprecedented phenomenon and impinges a paradigm shift in values. Maziarska - an acclaimed precursor and representative of material painting in Poland and abroad shows material painting itself but also in the form of collage and incorporation of painting and non-painting materials within the framework of the canvas, including wax, plaster, gravel, wood, and bags. Cutouts, photocopies of periodicals, handbooks, and albums collected by the artists serve as projects for paintings and spatial forms from the 1940's to the 90's, providing a kind of album of visible and invisible worlds.

The exhibition's structure references the idea of the atlas and collecting as well as the condition of the contemporary artist as a scientist, bricoleur, and engineer. It is an attempt to reconstruct the museum of imagination and photographic intermediacy of her creativity. Jadwiga Maziarska attended the Stefan Batory Law and Social Sciences Faculty in Vilnius and the painting Department of Kraków's Academy of Fine Art (along with Erna Rosenstein and Tadeusz Kantor). In 1957, she became a founding member of the II Kraków Group. Maziarska worked with Galerie Stadler and Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris and took part in numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad. In addition to painting, she worked in collage, reliefs, applications, spatial forms, and sculptures. In 2001, Maziarska received the Jan Cybis Award.

The intervention of two acclaimed Polish contemporary artists, Zofia Kulik and Józef Robakowski, accompanies the exhibition. Kulik and Robakowski offer pieces made especially for this occasion that provide commentary to Maziarska's work, complemented by an extensive catalog with texts by Andrzej Turowski, Agata Bielik-Robson, Anna Markowska and Dorota Jarecka.

Project partners: City of Sosnowiec, City of Cracow, Agnieszka Osiecka Okularnicy Foundation, Piekary Gallery, Antalis

Jadwiga Maziarska
Kurator: Barbara Piwowarska