Exhibition of paintings by the award-winning young artist Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska

AGNIESZKA STAAK-JANCZARSKA (born in 1994)
A graduate of the State Secondary School of Art. In 2020, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in painting in the studio of prof. Janusz Matuszewski.

Selected achievements:
2019 – Award of the Rector of the University of Rzeszów
2019 – Scholarship of the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow
2020 – Finalist of the Leon Wyczółkowski Competition
2020 – Finalist of Competition Nowy Obraz/Nowe Spojrzenie, UAP

Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska. Paintings

Opening: 15/11/2022 at 6 pm
Exhibition: 15-30/11/2022

Galeria Sztuki Katarzyny Napiórkowskiej
Świętokrzyska 32, Warsaw

The excellent wines at the vernissage will be delivered directly by the Granfest. A sommelier will be present at the opening, ready to talk about wines.
Granfesta has prepared a discount code especially for gallery guests.
Code GALERIA 15% on the store’s website www.granfesta.pl
The code is valid until November 20, 2022.

Ars longa and the outlook of eternity.

A painting studio is a place where a certain transformation takes place.
The studio is the painter’s private territory. It is a microcosm in which something fundamental for a painter is realized. After all, this is where the creative act takes place.

A kind of transformation takes place in the painting atelier. Here the idea becomes a material being: a concrete object.

It is this place (and the functions assigned to it) that is one of the most important threads in the work of Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska. The painting depicting the studio is at the same time a representation of the mystery of creation. It reveals the artist’s immediate surroundings, creating a specific catalog of objects which – to some extent – “evoke” the image.

In the case of Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska, the paintings of the studio are also a form of indirect tribute to the classics of art. The reproductions attached to the wall feature iconic paintings by Wróblewski, Munch, El Greco, Velázquez. They evoke painterly references. They are a challenge and mobilization. Their presence is also an act of humility – to accept the achievements of the past.

The reproductions on the walls of the studio are like an invitation to carefully, even persistently look at the works of the masters, which encode not only the transformations of painting, but also the mystery of masterpieces. Their impenetrable charisma becomes a vector of the challenges, choices and hopes of the humble debuting painter.

Looking at the works of the masters is therefore an act of humility and courage at the same time. For when referring to and quoting the works of great artists, you must have a stronger justification for your own creation.

The interior of the studio in Staak-Janczarska’s paintings is also a record of temporariness. It stands in opposition to the timelessness of art, like the material testimony of the maximal ars longa, vita brevis.

The paintings painted by the artist also appear on the canvases representing the studio. Their fate is to leave this atelier; however, they find their place for a moment in the “eternity” of the painting in which they are shown. This strengthens them and creates a special aura. Reproduction, placing an image in a painting opens a certain game with the viewer: here, together with the viewer, the artist finds herself in a common circle of references and associations.

I remember the artists’ studios I visited. Bright, glazed studio of professor Magdalena Abakanowicz in Warsaw’s Sadyba. The ingeniously designed studio of Edward Dwurnik, in which he precisely conducted a strategy of revealing to visitors what he wanted to reveal when he introduced them to the next “circles” of this artistic space. In the studio of Professor Leszek Rózga, the order of drawers and folders, along with accompanying descriptions documenting the history and catalog of the prints created over 70 years, were impressive, too. Józef Szajna’s studio immediately created an aura of concentration, although inscribed in the rhythm of the apartment and the dynamics of the city to which it belonged.

Remembering these places, I look with curiosity at the studio of Agnieszka Staak-Janczarska, an artist of the young generation.

The young age of the artist herself is also, in a way, an attribute of a place where time is slowly “settling down”. This is the past – the time of studies with rehearsals and workshops in painted nudes or still lifes. The present one – determined by the presence of objects telling about the here and now. “Feather-cover” of brushes in a cup – a sign of the painting time. A coat hung at the door – a sign of life outside. A glass vase on which – as in the case of the old masters – you can see a reflection.

Looking carefully beyond what is visible, perhaps we will also see the painter`s face?

Justyna Napiórkowska, PhD

AGNIESZKA STAAK-JANCZARSKA (born in 1994)
A graduate of the State Secondary School of Art of Józef Kluza in Krakow. In 2020, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in painting at the studio of prof. Janusz Matuszewski.

Selected achievements:
2019 – Nagroda Rektora Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego zdobyta w 1 TMS w Rzeszowie
2019 – Wyróżnienie w II Małym Zimowym Salonie Młodych, Zofia Weiss Gallery
2019 – Stypendium Rektora krakowskiej Akademii Sztuk Pięknych 2020 – Finalistka IV Ogólnopolskiego Konkursu Malarskiego im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego
2020 – Finalistka Konkursu Nowy Obraz /Nowe Spojrzenie, UAP 2021 – Stypendium Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego RP Młoda Polska
2021 – II miejsce w K onkursie „A co z wartościami? Prawda.”, Centrum Historii Zajezdnia 2021 – Finalistka K onkursu o Nagrodę Eibischa
2022 – I miejsce w V Zimowym Salonie Młodych, Zofia Weiss Gallery
2022 – Wyróżnienie w K onkursie Nowy Obraz/Nowe Spojrzenie, UAP
2022 – Finalistka V Ogólnopolskiego Konkursu Malarskiego im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego 2022 – Finalistka II Konkurs u Sztuki Nowe Syt uacje pt. Kontrasty

Galeria Sztuki Katarzyny Napiórkowskiej
Warszawa, Świętokrzyska 32

Contact us to receive the offer of available works.

Contact