Collection

Painter, creator of objects, installations and photographs. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where she studied in Prof. Jerzy Nowosielski’s studio. She began with expressive pieces, becoming consistent in combining text with image since the 1990s, quoting the TV, press, and internet. Deprived of their original context, all become apt commentaries on public ambience. Her works, such as We Won, They Cried, and Obedient, have been produced as canvases, billboards, wallpaper, posters, and book covers. Sawicka has also created series of clothing, floral and cosmetic renditions with fictitious advertising slogans. She frequently collaborates with Marek Horwat on photographic and graphic projects. Winner of the Jan Cybis Award (2013) and Katarzyna Kobro Award (2016). She lives and works in Przemyśl.

Jadwiga Sawicka’s photographs are an illustration of grappling with meaning, form, and beauty in art. The artist filled ordinary plastic bottles with coloured fluids and labelled them by hand. Beverage name labels have been replaced with such words as “faith”, “hope”, and “goodness”. The artist is troubled by the abundance and uncertainty of choice: one can never focus on a single thing only—something new always lurks around the corner. Part two comprises a series of photographs of carnation head compositions. Flowers symbolise natural beauty, and plastic bottles photographed against a backdrop of fake fur or coloured faux leather become a quintessential commentary on mass culture-produced kitsch.

Jadwiga Sawicka’s photographs are an illustration of grappling with meaning, form, and beauty in art. The artist filled ordinary plastic bottles with coloured fluids and labelled them by hand. Beverage name labels have been replaced with such words as “faith”, “hope”, and “goodness”. The artist is troubled by the abundance and uncertainty of choice: one can never focus on a single thing only—something new always lurks around the corner. Part two comprises a series of photographs of carnation head compositions. Flowers symbolise natural beauty, and plastic bottles photographed against a backdrop of fake fur or coloured faux leather become a quintessential commentary on mass culture-produced kitsch.

Jadwiga Sawicka’s photographs are an illustration of grappling with meaning, form, and beauty in art. The artist filled ordinary plastic bottles with coloured fluids and labelled them by hand. Beverage name labels have been replaced with such words as “faith”, “hope”, and “goodness”. The artist is troubled by the abundance and uncertainty of choice: one can never focus on a single thing only—something new always lurks around the corner. Part two comprises a series of photographs of carnation head compositions. Flowers symbolise natural beauty, and plastic bottles photographed against a backdrop of fake fur or coloured faux leather become a quintessential commentary on mass culture-produced kitsch.

Jadwiga Sawicka’s photographs are an illustration of grappling with meaning, form, and beauty in art. The artist filled ordinary plastic bottles with coloured fluids and labelled them by hand. Beverage name labels have been replaced with such words as “faith”, “hope”, and “goodness”. The artist is troubled by the abundance and uncertainty of choice: one can never focus on a single thing only—something new always lurks around the corner. Part two comprises a series of photographs of carnation head compositions. Flowers symbolise natural beauty, and plastic bottles photographed against a backdrop of fake fur or coloured faux leather become a quintessential commentary on mass culture-produced kitsch.

Jadwiga Sawicka’s photographs are an illustration of grappling with meaning, form, and beauty in art. The artist filled ordinary plastic bottles with coloured fluids and labelled them by hand. Beverage name labels have been replaced with such words as “faith”, “hope”, and “goodness”. The artist is troubled by the abundance and uncertainty of choice: one can never focus on a single thing only—something new always lurks around the corner. Part two comprises a series of photographs of carnation head compositions. Flowers symbolise natural beauty, and plastic bottles photographed against a backdrop of fake fur or coloured faux leather become a quintessential commentary on mass culture-produced kitsch.

Jadwiga Sawicka’s photographs are an illustration of grappling with meaning, form, and beauty in art. The artist filled ordinary plastic bottles with coloured fluids and labelled them by hand. Beverage name labels have been replaced with such words as “faith”, “hope”, and “goodness”. The artist is troubled by the abundance and uncertainty of choice: one can never focus on a single thing only—something new always lurks around the corner. Part two comprises a series of photographs of carnation head compositions. Flowers symbolise natural beauty, and plastic bottles photographed against a backdrop of fake fur or coloured faux leather become a quintessential commentary on mass culture-produced kitsch.

Jadwiga Sawicka’s photographs are an illustration of grappling with meaning, form, and beauty in art. The artist filled ordinary plastic bottles with coloured fluids and labelled them by hand. Beverage name labels have been replaced with such words as “faith”, “hope”, and “goodness”. The artist is troubled by the abundance and uncertainty of choice: one can never focus on a single thing only—something new always lurks around the corner. Part two comprises a series of photographs of carnation head compositions. Flowers symbolise natural beauty, and plastic bottles photographed against a backdrop of fake fur or coloured faux leather become a quintessential commentary on mass culture-produced kitsch.

As in nearly all artworks by Jadwiga Sawicka, words on the canvas trigger associations with glossy magazine headlines or soap opera episode summaries. The artist arranged her trademark lettering somewhat clumsily against a pale-pink background showing traces of brush or spatula strokes. This rendition deprives the quoted words of their original context; any glamour or successful individual is absent: paint-spattered canvas is all there is. Mass media quotes remain in contrast to discreet traditional canvas painting. Out of the blue, words take on new power, expressing emotion and allowing individual interpretation.

Jadwiga Sawicka’s oeuvre is a rich collection of written paintings. In Zero Pleasure, the artist yet again renders a banal expression, commonly used in the media, in a manner multiplying its sense. What are the source and content of the phrase itself? What is the actual sense of the rather disturbing title? An excerpt from a piece by the artist may offer an attempt at a response: “Restriction and enclosure. Security and control. Voluntary renunciation of privileges in exchange for partial access to certain rights. Microscopic wounds, illusory drama, and all that fuss about nothing.”