Title: #10 from the LIMFA series
Technique: cyanotype toned on acid-free paper 300 g, edition 1/1 - unique, year of creation 2023, signed
Format: artwork 17.5x26 cm
Framing: format 30x40 cm gray wooden frame, acid-free passe-partout, glass
Certificate of authenticity
Description
The project was inspired by my grandfather's collection of old postagestamps. It reflected a social and cultural system inwhich men held a dominant position of power and women were marginalized. In the project, I direct attention to the need to findthe balance possibleby combining opposites. Unlike Eastern culture which spreads the unity of dissimilarities, in Western culture dualism separates matter from spirit, reason from emotion, man from woman. This separation promotes detachment from nature and the deteriorating well-being of both sexes. This is opposed by the female element. It is like lymph, which circulates beneath the surface affecting the immune system of the entire body.
The choice of technique was not accidental, in this 19th century cyanotype technique I find the poetry ofthe coexistence of duality. A camera-free image emerges from darkness through direct light. The hand-prepared collage is saved by the sunlight, and the works gain a unique hue in the toning process. Similarly, in the pursuit of a balance of opposing forces, through deconstruction and redefinition of the value system, I see an opportunity for a worldwhere diversity andpossibilityreign , rather than uniformity and necessity.
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The works from the LIMFA series were presented in solo exhibitions at the Next Gallery of the ZPAF in Warsaw in 2023, at the BWA Bielska Gallery in Bielsko-Biała as part of the 10th FotoArtFestival in 2023, and at the Gallery of Modern Art at the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz as part of the main program of the 10th Vintage Photo Festivalin 2024. They were also presented at the ZART group exhibitions at the Verein BerlinerKünstlerGallery in Berlin, at the "Photography as a Medium" conference in Berlin, and at the LEKKA exhibition at the Rozruch Art Gallery in Poznań in 2025.
The LIMFA series won first place Fine Art Photography professional section in the international competition 20th Julia Margaret Cameron Awardin Barcelonain 2023 and an honorable mention in the competition Exhibit at CCA, Center for Contemporary Art in Torun in 2024.
artist biography
Katarzyna Kalua Krynska
Visual artist, architect, photographer. She specializes in emotional, portrait and creative photography, using traditional, alternative and mix-media techniques. In herwork , shecombines 19th-century photographic techniques with montage in the symbolic-surrealist tradition. He experiments with light-sensitive materials, searching for new forms of expression. He creates poetic and expressive works that go beyond the canons of classical photography. He moves in subject matter on the edge of matter and spirit, inviting a dialogue prompting reflection on the nature ofreality, boldly crossing the boundaries of artistic conventions. In the opinion of Dr. Krzysztof Jurecki, a critic and historian of photography, "The art of Katarzyna Kalua Krynska has defined a new standard and artistic level for the cyanotype technique." (44 Photography Quarterly).
Doctor of Fine Arts. She is a member of the Union of PolishArtistsPhotographers(ZPAF). Author of the cyanotype album "Blue Moon Garden". Curator and lecturer. Since 2013, she has been conducting original workshops on alternative and historical photographic techniques. From 2021-2022, she is a lecturer at the Studio of Photography at the APS, Institute of Art Education in Warsaw. Since 2021, she has been a lecturer at the ZPAF Photography Studio. She runs the Open Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. She sits on the jury ofphotographycompetitionsandportfolioreviews, cooperates with cultural institutions and galleries. Her works have been shown in numerous individual and group exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including: Ireland, Portugal, Holland, Germany, Spain and the United States, and are in private collections.
Her works have been featuredat analogNOW!, Berlin Photo Week, Foto Art Festival, Vintage Photo Festival, Fotoperyferie, Month of Photography Bratislava, Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Barcelona, Ale Biennale in Siedlce and in galleries: Gallery Next to ZPAF Warsaw, CCA Torun, Gallery of Photography of Gdansk Museum, BWA Kielce. They were published in, among others: Zwierciadło, Kwartalnik Fotografia, SHOTS Magazine, SOURA Magazine, BLOW Photo Magazine, PRISM Photo Magazine, SEITIES, The Hand Magazine, FotoNostrum Magazine, Photo TrouvéeMagazine and others.
www.kalua.pl
