Joanna Mazuś
Born 1994, Warsaw
All of her work is an expression of a strong longing for deep, metaphysical beauty.
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Visual artist and art theorist working primarily in easel and monumental painting, not restricting herself only to plastic arts but also writing essays about philosophical-artistic reflections. Her entire creative activity is bound by the concept of metaphysical abstraction, which is focused on creating an intercultural visual language conducive to the exploration of all-human spirituality, which would not be limited by anyone’s background.
She was born in 1994 in Warsaw, Poland. In 2018, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (Faculty of Painting). She got MFA degree with honours for the final master’s project created in studios of Prof. Andrzej Rysiński (painting) and Prof. Krzysztof Jabłonowski (second specialisation – photography). In the academic year of 2016/2017, she was an exchange student at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Since 2016, she creates monumental polychromes and projects in collaboration with Krzysztof Sokolovski.
Presented artworks are some of the traces of my endeavours to create intercultural visual forms conducive to the exploration of human spirituality. My art concentrates on universals, so the visual language should not require reading or searching for narratives accessible only to a selected social group, but aid pure, intuitive, untaught perceiving, and cause a spiritual resonance in viewers. Of course, artwork can still incorporate a narrative, but penetration of it should not be a necessary condition for a fully valuable aesthetic experience. I believe that this potential exists in the skilfully used language of abstract art, which directly touches the very essence of things.
I strive for exploration of the universal potential of abstract art oriented on the other human – treated neither as a subject nor an object, but as a living, sentient being, whom the artist truly cares about. The purpose is to enrich the inner life of the audience while going beyond the limitations of cultural divisions. At the same time, this kind of art can create a counterbalance to the unstable reality, open viewers to crossing the boundaries of everyday experience, stimulating the intellect, feelings and senses, and conduce to concentration or mental relief.
It seems to me that the distinction between vile matter and sublime spirit is unnatural. I tilt to seeking spirituality in what we as people have constant access to – the mysterious dimension of existence is intrinsically embraced in our everyday life, in the world around us, and in the way we exist in it. And it is this metaphysical melody of human experiencing reality that I try to note in the form of paintings.
I pursue these endeavours in the field of painting (paintings on canvases, polychrome reliefs on panels, and monumental painting). To materialise my intuitions, I use materials close to nature (linden wood, linen canvas, gold leaf) and painting techniques based on organic binders (egg tempera, traditional gessos). They have a special artistic quality, the truth of nature, which enhances the internal working of art pieces.
