Polish artist Barbara Wesołowska’s transcendental art at the Michael Werner Gallery
WHAT’S ON: Michael Werner Gallery, Athens, is delighted to present Faithfully Represented, an exhibition showcasing the latest paintings by Barbara Wesołowska, a Poland-born, London-based artist whose work bridges the ethereal and the earthly.
The title Faithfully Represented, drawn from Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, resonates with the philosophical tension embedded in Wesołowska’s practice. The two words—faithfully and represented—carry distinct, even discordant meanings. For Wesołowska, they encapsulate the struggle between striving to capture the ineffable and arriving at a modern object of veneration.
Rooted in her upbringing within the richly spiritual landscape of Poland, Wesołowska’s work draws heavily on the imagery of Polish Gothic churches, where the Madonna and saints presided over her childhood. This religious heritage finds contemporary echoes in her studio process, a ritualistic dance of spilling, layering, and rubbing oil paint onto linen. Materials such as gold leaf—whether visible or obscured beneath layers of paint—further evoke the iconographic traditions of religious art, imbuing her works with an atmosphere of reverence.
Wesołowska’s paintings summon the intangible and transcendental into tactile, sensorial forms. Her process is deeply intuitive, inviting chance to shape the compositions, much like the spiritual icons that inspire her, where physicality serves as a portal to the divine.
A graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art (2013) and the Royal College of Art, London (2015), Wesołowska has exhibited internationally. This year alone, her solo presentation with Stereo Warsaw at Art Basel’s Statements drew critical acclaim, and her work has recently been featured in shows at Silke Lindner (New York), east contemporary (Milan), and LC Queisser (Tbilisi), among others. She continues to live and work in London.
WHEN: November 16, 2024 till further announcement
WHERE: Leof. Vasileos Georgiou B 10
Opening hours from Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 7pm and Saturday from 11am to 3pm. For more information, please contact press@michaelwerner.com or visit their website
Faithfully Represented opens to the public on Saturday, November 16, 2024, following a private view on Friday, November 15, from 6 to 9 PM.
