Beata Filipowicz

STATEMENT

I paint in a state of intense concentration, or surrender to a childlike play of perceiving colours, shapes, and the relationships between them. I embrace chance: a single shape can suddenly become ambiguous and undefined.

The human mind does not perceive what simply is; rather, it perceives its own distorted version of what it believes to be there. There is no single Reality as such — reality depends on how we choose to observe it. So much reaches me from the external world that I have begun to reduce the means I use in painting. I see this as a challenge: to what extent can painting, simple in form, speak about reality? Can I capture within an image the atmosphere of an intimate relationship between objects and beings, immaterial reflections, shadows, and movement?

For me, painting is a path towards something rather than a destination. It is a way of asking questions about the meaning of our place in the world. Perhaps this is what every mark I leave on a painting ultimately comes down to. Behind the works lies an awareness of transience, of the dissolution of form that is constantly in motion.

At the core of my practice is an interest in Buddhist thought and practice, approached through both intimate and universal experiences.

My practice moves between painting, drawing and printmaking. In recent projects, I have worked with found objects and elements drawn from everyday life and popular culture, exploring how their meanings can shift through displacement and new associations.

Language has also become an important part of my visual practice, both visual arts and illustration. Text has often been the starting point for my work, but more recently I have begun to explore writing itself as a visual form. I am particularly interested in the point at which meaning begins to dissolve into form: where a word becomes a gesture, a letter becomes an abstract shape, and language opens into something that can be experienced rather than simply read.

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

2016 – Honourable Mention, 7th edition of the Grafika Semestru competition, Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland (April)

2016 – First Prize, “70 Years of the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław” competition, Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design, Wrocław (March)

2016 – Finalist, “Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin” competition for young artists, Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw (March–September)

2015 – Finalist, 14th edition of the Artystyczna Podróż Hestii competition, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (May)

2015 – Honourable Mention, “Bajki – La Fontaine – Fables” illustration competition, Widnokrąg Publishing House, Warsaw, Poland (February)

2015–2016 – Rector’s Scholarship for the Best Students, Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016 – Unlimited, Galeria Otwarta, Aleja Bielany, Wrocław, Poland (February)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2016 – “Martwa Natura”, Galeria Propaganda, Warsaw, Poland (November)

2016 – “Sztuka Teraz”, Szlachetna Paczka project, National Museum in Kraków, Poland (November–December)

2016 – “Młodzi w Muzeum. Poziom najwyższy”, National Museum in Wrocław, Poland (October)

2016 – “After Eden”, LATARKA Art Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (August–September)

2016 – “The Joy of Life”, AWE•SOME FENIX Art Gallery, Singapore (September)

2016 – “Hybrid Printmaking”, an art project and series of exhibitions in Poland and Japan carried out in collaboration between the Wrocław School of Printmaking and Awagami Factory in Japan (September–October)

2016 – 16th International Biennale of Small Graphic Forms and Ex Libris, Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland

2016 – Group exhibition of professors and students of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław (Faculty of Graphics and Media Art), Museum of Contemporary Art in Isfahan, Iran (planned for July 2016)

2016 – “Młoda Sztuka w Starym Mieście”, Galeria pod Baranami, Kraków, Poland (July–September)

2016 – Group exhibition of finalists of the “Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin” competition, Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw, Poland (March–September)

2016 – 11th International Ex Libris Competition, Gliwice, Poland (June)

2015 – “Ulica Themersonów”, Płock Art Gallery, Poland (October)

2015 – Young Art Market, Nowa Huta Art Festival NHFEST, Kraków, Poland (October)

2015 – Exhibition of finalists of the 15th edition of the Artystyczna Podróż Hestii competition, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (May)