Żaneta Chłostowska (b. 1983, Zielona Góra), "Ophelia Awakening," 2023

Literature
"One of the characteristic features of a literary work is that its plot takes place in time and thus it is possible to successively build up the psychological image of the characters, while visual arts must describe the world in a single moment that is important from the point of view of the depicted theme. I do not even dream of correcting the literary model, but I rebel against the undeserved fate of this wonderful girl. My Ophelia, at the most tragic moment of her short life, begins to regain consciousness, to wake up. Her already half-open eyes and a face that no longer expresses resignation, but a moment of awakening before taking in a lungful of air and saying 'I intend to live.' The moment when the rebellion against the awareness of loss and the moment of regaining causality awakens. We don't yet know the effects of this transformation but one thing we do know is that something amazing is happening here.
This is a portrait of a contemporary Ophelia. In creating it, I asked myself, what would Ophelia be like today? How would she find herself in such a situation? What kind of sensitivity would she have, what kind of world would she be rebelling against, what kind of world would she be running away from, and why does this world want to get her at all costs? My painting is a portrait of a woman who wants to find for herself her own space far from the influence of others, she wants to find harmony with herself. My Ophelia does not seek solace in the final solution she wants to live, but on her own terms. She is able to create a shield around herself, a world in which she finds harmony. She does not want to change. This is a portrait of a woman in search of her own identity who doesn't want to let herself be absorbed by nothingness."
Zhaneta Chlostowska

Biography
She began her artistic education at the State High School of Fine Arts in Zielona Gora, majoring in exhibition studies. After its graduation, she continued her education at the Institute of Visual Arts where in 2009 she defended her master's degree in painting at the University of Zielona Gora in Prof. Jan Gawron's studio. For some time she lived and worked in Liverpool. The author presented her works at individual and collective exhibitions, including West Lancashire Annual Open Exhibition" (UK), Tetlow (Germany), Jänschwalde (Germany), Artus Court Torun and many others. She works in painting, mosaic and sculpture. The dominant theme of her works is women and their condition in the modern world. These themes are not conveyed directly, so they require intellectual effort and interpretive maturity. Often appearing female faces with a certain amount of melancholy, concentration, withdrawal and apparent distancing from the world and even those with undisguised attributes of proficiency provoke reflection, intrigue asking questions about the limits of subordination or ... independence. It is a search for one's own identity by annexing space in social identity. The problems faced by the statistically larger part of our population are mental, which, shaped since the dawn of our species, has left a stigma of social roles and dependencies. Despite many changes and the passage of time, the social role of women for a large part of society has not been significantly reevaluated.As for the technical layer, the strongly subdued colors used by the painter, rarely tolerating a wider color palette and frequent handling of various shades of black and gray give her works a very specific, original and full of nuances of interpretation. Very important is also the "absence of background" which strongly emphasizes the relevance of the subject undertaken. Although this treatment was used by many painters, here it is applied in a pure and uncompromising way. Depth, nothingness, spacelessness, ephemerality can bring us closer to understanding through contrast and emphasis or absorb everything irretrievably. Ambiguity, multi-layered and at the same time ... quite spectacular to look at.