Collection

Mariola Przyjemska

untitled (Museum of Modern Art In Warsaw)

2004, c-print, dibond, plexiglass, 44.5 × 59 cm

The motif of cosmetics appeared regularly in the artist’s work from 1997 to 2005 in painting and photography. For Przyjemska, perfume and makeup bottles symbolize the creation of female identity and the work on a woman’s own image. The series Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw arose at the time of the debate over the form of the new museum building and uncertainty surrounding the launch of construction. The artist photographed the view from her apartment window, arranging cosmetics bottles, lipsticks and glosses in the foreground. These items, superimposed on the urban landscape of Warsaw, became a futuristic design for the museum building, blending perfectly with the slender profiles of glass skyscrapers. This homage to the design of everyday items also conveys a critical commentary on the functioning of market mechanisms and capitalism. Both the towers rising along the horizon and the cosmetics packaging are symbols of contemporary consumption.

Mariola Przyjemska

b. 1963, Warsaw

Painter, creator of photographs, objects and video. Graduate of the Faculty of Painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. From the start her work has been strongly rooted in the realities of the Polish post-communist transformation, and observation and frequently criticism of the capitalist system. She was one of the first artists to address themes of contemporary models of consumption, image creation, and building of demand for luxury goods and brands. In creating series of photographs and objects, she uses such items as labels removed from clothing, discovering in them a range of symbols, meanings and associations. Although her observations and quests are grounded in the tradition of critical art, they are not moralizing in tone. She lives and works in Warsaw.

b. 1963, Warsaw

Painter, creator of photographs, objects and video. Graduate of the Faculty of Painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. From the start her work has been strongly rooted in the realities of the Polish post-communist transformation, and observation and frequently criticism of the capitalist system. She was one of the first artists to address themes of contemporary models of consumption, image creation, and building of demand for luxury goods and brands. In creating series of photographs and objects, she uses such items as labels removed from clothing, discovering in them a range of symbols, meanings and associations. Although her observations and quests are grounded in the tradition of critical art, they are not moralizing in tone. She lives and works in Warsaw.

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