Collection

Storm was the first picture painted with a view to the exhibition Napoleonka or Death at the Polana Institute, which was the artist’s personal coming to terms with the experience of long-term depression and the painful breakup with a partner. “This painting firstly touches on total anger,” the artist says. “I imagined this gigantic, apocalyptic storm that would sweep everything from the face of the earth, ripping loose the chain, dashing the anchor against the rocks, electrocuting the whole world, because I am mad!” But Storm also has more than a personal dimension. The painting is a reflection on global events forging a sense of general despair and threat. The painting was created in February 2020, on the eve of the approaching pandemic. Iconographically, the painting recalls Albrecht Dürer’s 16^th-century watercolour Dream of the Great Flood, with blue-black towers of water cascading from heaven. It is a record of a disturbing dream of the artist from a time when Europe was facing the convulsions of the Reformation. Another major reference here for Hanna Krzysztofiak is the character of Fillyjonk from Moominvalley. Fillyjonk’s life was ruled by a panicked fear of catastrophe. When the long-awaited storm arrived, destroying her home, Fillyjonk—typical for an anxious personality—finally felt relief and regained her inner calm.

Painter. A graduate of the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. In her work she plays skilfully with the aesthetics of kitsch, presenting serious themes and difficult emotions using jokes and the grotesque. She ascribes symbolic meaning to seemingly trivial items, alluding to motifs from art history and pop culture as well as iconic historical figures. In her painting she combines personal experiences with reflections on the condition of the contemporary world. In 2020, she received the ING Polish Art Foundation Prize during Warsaw Gallery Weekend. She lives and works in Warsaw.

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