Justyna KABALA (b. 1981), Yellow Jealous, 2013

Oil, canvas; 90 x 120 cm.

From 2001 to 2006 she studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She completed her diploma under the direction of Professor Krzysztof Wachowiak. In 2004 she received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture for her academic performance. She was awarded several prizes in the Warsaw Graphics competition. In 2006 she won the Golden Branch of the 3A Artistic Agency for her thesis. In 2006, she was selected to participate in the International Triennial of Graphic Arts in Krakow as part of the Best Diploma project - a student and his promoter. In 2015, she was in residence at the Nida Art Colony in Lithuania. An article about her work appeared in Kolaj Magazine - a Canadian magazine dedicated to the most interesting phenomena in contemporary collage. The artist's works have been published numerous times, including in the album Nude in Polish Painting by Barbara Kokoska. She is currently a doctoral student at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Art at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce.
Recent solo exhibitions: 2016 - "(Ze)interior. A view in flow.", Gallery XX1, Warsaw; 2015 - "Collage Pleasures", Gallery Si:said, Klaipeda; 2015 - "Transition," Korekta Gallery, Warsaw; 2014 - "Real- Unreal," Polish Institute, Bratislava; 2014 - "Coll-Age," ArtAtak Gallery, Prague; 2014 - "Imaginary collages," Meno Parkas Gallery, Kaunas; 2014 - "Concert," XX1 Gallery, Warsaw; 2013 - "Stopping the moments", REM Gallery, Warsaw; 2011 - "2.5 paintings", Gallery (-1), Olympic Center, Warsaw; 2011 - "Butterfly", XX1 Gallery, Warsaw; 2010 - "Gender plays gender", Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Chamber Gallery, Slupsk.

"I can describe my painting as a kind of journey. I strive for a kind of harmony, completeness, unity in my paintings. They weave together personal experiences, feelings, formal experiments, fascination with color. The subject matter of the works makes them a kind of visual puzzle, they undertake a form of perceptual game with the viewer. I create paintings on the borderline of abstraction, but you can find in them references to nature and also the influence of new media: photography, computer graphics, digital image editing. In search of my own means of expression, I would like to refer to the concept of pure form - a theory according to which the primary role of art is to evoke a metaphysical feeling in the viewer. Drawing on my own experience, in my works you can find references to the works of Stefan Gierowski, Wojciech Fangor, Kazimir Malevich, Mark Rothko, Ada Reinhardt."
Justyna Kabala