Collection

Dominika Kowynia addresses the concept of femininity in many of her paintings. She attempts to understand and define it for her own purposes, while also drawing on recollections of women she finds intriguing: “This painting involves a story connected with a figure important for me: a librarian and recreation instructor at my elementary school. As a child I admired her patience and her quiet, delicate voice. Much later, as an adult, I learned that she maintained her mysterious calm thanks to large quantities of valerian she had carried with her from Poland when she emigrated.”

Painter specializing in figurative oils. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, she has taught at the same institution since 2003 in the Department of Drawing and Painting, earning a doctorate in 2010. She is interested in the intersection of personal experiences and current events, recent history and literature. Her paintings include references to Libya, where she spent her childhood, but also reflections on the relations between humans and animals, and texts of feminist writers and thinkers. She was twice a finalist in the Bielska Jesień Painting Biennale (2015 and 2017). She's represented by the Szara gallery in Katowice, where she lives and works.