Beata Ewa Białecka In My Image and Likeness

The Mazowieckie Centre for Contemporary Art „Elektrownia” in Radom presents an exhibition by Beata Ewa Białecka, one of the most recognisable and respected Polish contemporary painters. For years her work has explored spirituality, corporeality, femininity, identity and the universal dimension of human experience. These are areas, however, that the artist never treats as closed subjects. On the contrary, she uses them to ask questions to which there are no simple answers.

Białecka's work is deeply rooted in European tradition. The artist draws on Christian iconography, biblical and mythological motifs, the history of art and the language of the old masters. She does not do this in order to reconstruct the past. Her painting conducts an ongoing dialogue with tradition, and sometimes an outright dispute. What is familiar is shifted, reversed and called into doubt. An old image becomes a starting point for a story about the contemporary human being: their fears, desires, entanglement and need to find their own place.

The exhibition title, In My Image and Likeness, indirectly refers to the biblical formula of the creation of man. Yet there is more to it than a quotation from the Book of Genesis. It can be read as a question about who actually has the right to shape the image of a human being. Who decides what that image should be? Who defines femininity, the body, beauty, holiness, sin, desire or suffering? And finally: is a human being created „in the image and likeness”, or does a person, over the course of a lifetime, create their own image and likeness?

Beata Ewa Białecka (b. 1966) is a painter and graduate of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. She received her diploma in 1992 in the studio of Prof. Jerzy Nowosielski.

She works within the current of contemporary figurative painting. She combines inspirations from older art and religious iconography with reflection on contemporary culture and the social roles of women. She uses Christian symbols as a tool of subversion, addressing femininity, motherhood, corporeality and memory, as well as the relationship between the sacred and the profane. She juxtaposes religious motifs with references to popular culture and advertising. Since 2015, embroidery worked directly onto the painting has been an important element of selected works. Entering into dialogue with the tradition of religious embroidery, it becomes an integral part of the image and extends the means of painterly expression.

Recipient, among others, of the Grand Prix of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Pomeranian Art Award, nominated for the „Polityka” Passport. Her works are held in the collections of, among others, the National Museum in Gdańsk, the Zamek Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, and the Museo Colección Roberto Polo – Centre for Modern and Contemporary Art of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo.