Mariola Przyjemska
born 1963 in Warsaw, is a multimedia artist who creates paintings, photographs and films. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1988, she defended her diploma in the painting studio of Tadeusz Dominik, as well as an annex in installations in Ryszard Winiarski’s studio. The exhibition presenting diploma works took place in the same year, in the Warsaw Gallery Dziekanka. At the begining of her creative practice, in the so-called mystical period, Przyjemska concentrated mostly on ecstatic, neo-expressionist paintings, although already during her studies she did not avoid performances and installations, in which she made use of the fire element. The mystical period was both a time to search for the means of expression for a non-orthodox spirituality, and a time to seek one’s own identity as a woman artist. In her paintings, created with a limited colour-palette that brings to mind alchemical flames, we can find references to both antique and Christian iconography; references to old masters, as well as to pre-war and post-war avant-garde.
In early 1990s, new elements appear, making references to oriental architecture and the Mediterranean Basin, expressing spiritual and cultural search on the edge between Oriental and Western influences. Since around 1993, the artist’s interests focused on applied textiles, and later on a specific part of them: the clothing labels. Initially, the motif of a clothing label started appearing in her paintings, then she audaciously incorporated them in large format photographs that allowed her to blow up those tiny objects to the size of street banners. Apart from zooming in, the artist modified their images – showing the reverse side resembling contemporary abstract painting, removing or adding letters, and creating ambiguous messages. In the next decades of her practice, Przyjemska alternated between paintings and photography, with a sporadic addition of film, always making reference to the existing trends in historical and contemporary art: constructivism, minimalism, pop-art, in cycles such as Różnica i powtórzenie, Obrazy greckie, Kosmetyki, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Warszawa w budowie, Jazy, Rondo ONZ, Victoria’s Secret, czy Sky Sawa. At the same time, Przyjemska comments on the economic, social and political transformation happening in Poland since mid-1980s.