“I Enclosed a Fragment of Her Nostalgic Soul in a Black Pearl” — Meet the Artist Anna Maria Zuzela

Anna Maria Zuzela was born in 1995. She graduated from the University of Physical Education in Kraków and later completed a degree in Painting with distinction at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Her practice focuses primarily on painting, ceramics and photography.

The artist is interested in how the body functions in public space and how it is perceived depending on the context. She also explores how contemporary culture, society and different ways of thinking shape our understanding of the body and physicality.

Why did you become an artist?

From an early age, I paid close attention to colour, texture and the fleeting beauty of a moment. I was always that strange child who could play alone for hours, completely absorbed in a world of my own. I took everything in through my eyes and worked with my hands, quickly realising that I had found a safe place for myself. I believe that, as an artist, I have the special and unique opportunity to give tangible shape and form to my impressions and emotions.

What is your art about?

My art tells a story about the body — about how it has been perceived in the past and how it is perceived today, about abuse and criticism, and about the pursuit of an idealised, utopian beauty. The figures I paint possess their own strength and agency. They are uncompromising and enter into a dialogue with the viewer; their bodies are not separate entities or objects intended merely to be looked at.

I often challenge the relationship between the voyeur and the victim, explore boundaries, take bodies beyond the confines of civilisation and search for them within the landscape.

Which of your works is the most important to you?

I like it when my works leave the studio and have to find their own way in the world. Over the years, however, there have also been paintings that I found difficult to part with because they marked the end or beginning of an important stage in my life.

At the moment, the work I have no intention of letting go is a portrait of my grandmother Wandzia, which initiated my series of women wearing pearls. I feel that I captured a fragment of her nostalgic soul in this painting — perhaps I enclosed it in the black pearl she wears on her ear?

Which contemporary artists do you admire?

Tony Cragg
Louise Bonnet
Mika Rottenberg
Ambera Wellmann
Andres Bedoya

My latest discovery is Domenico Gnoli, an acclaimed Italian painter and set designer born in Rome, who unfortunately is no longer alive. Among the artists close to me, I have continuously admired the work of Samuel Kłoda since my painting studies.

What does your creative process look like?

It resembles building a nest — a private space filled with objects that are close and important to me. My studio contains many shells, pearls, sketches, photographs, printouts and various small objects. Contrary to what one might expect, it is in this kind of chaos that I find it easiest to concentrate and gather creative energy.

I divide the creative process itself into two stages. The first is fast, intense and messy, accompanied by energetic music and a clear mind. This is the beginning: an intuitive underpainting, searching for colour, mixing paint and turpentine.

The second stage is static and repetitive. At this point I am focused, but I can paint while listening to audiobooks or podcasts. This is when I work on details: my figures are given body hair, decorated and armed.

What do you envy other artists?

Their ability to work quickly.

What would you show someone visiting Poland for the first time?

I would want to show them a Poland that exists beyond postcard images. I love Lower Silesia for its forests and abandoned places, Masuria for its open landscapes and lakes, and the Baltic Sea in winter, when it is raw, windy and almost empty. These landscapes possess an immense power and often inspire me more than crowded cities.

In my work, I think about the body and treat it as part of the landscape rather than something separate from it. I would therefore also show places where one can see how history, nature and human life have left traces upon one another.

For me, this is precisely what is most beautiful about Poland: its imperfection, changeability and closeness to nature. If I had only one hour, I would sit with my mysterious visitor in front of Ferdynand Ruszczyc’s Winter Tale at the National Museum in Kraków.

What does Polish art have to offer? What are its most interesting developments?

I believe that Polish contemporary art holds enormous potential, although we do not yet fully know how to make bold use of it ourselves. Polish artists are characterised by excellent technical skills and great ambition.

I am pleased to see the growing interest in women artists who have been forgotten or overlooked by art history. I believe their work represents an extraordinary source of excellent art that can fill important gaps in our understanding of contemporary phenomena.

What would you do if you were not a painter?

I have a degree from the University of Physical Education in Kraków, and for a brief moment I thought that my life might take a somewhat different direction. Fortunately, reason was silenced and my inner child prevailed.

Today, if it were not for art, I think I would become a psychologist.