Karolina Bielawska

 

Graduate of Media Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (2015). Visual artist, works with painting, which she combines with sculpture. Lives and works in Warsaw. Represented by Wschód Gallery (Warsaw, Cologne, New York) and Double Q Gallery (Hong Kong).

Karolina Bielawska’s visual language communicates a desire for harmony that constantly collides with violence, oppression, and brutality, turning the canvases into sites of tension and conflict. She takes chaos and totalizes it into patterns. The controlled figures have a soothing effect on our senses. There is a calmness in anticipating what might come next. Bielawska sees her works as products of her contemplation about feelings and the possibilities of portraying them. The internal and personal sphere is what the artist is preoccupied with. She also finds that the energy, the emotional charge, and the memory of a particular place influence her work, herein shaping a site-specific sensibility.

Among Bielawska’s distinctive methods is the use of bitumen paint. She shares the concept behind this strategy: “I started using bitumen paint a few years ago when looking for a material that would relate to a resistant, heavy, flooding mass, similar to asphalt. I painted a series of paintings that referred to the idea of home – as a dream asylum. I wanted to find examples of such houses in the urban space and I chose villas from the interwar period. One of them was demolished because it hindered the construction of a new asphalt road in Warsaw. I decided in some – but not literal – way to use such a destructive, flooding element in my own pieces. Bitumen paint turned out to be the right solution. I liked its earthy black and its roughness. I began using it in subsequent paintings and installations because it fit well into the broader context of my works – wrestling, struggling, persevering despite instability.”

Selected solo exhibitions:

2024

Comebacks, Echo, Cologne, DE

2023

Connective Tissue, Warsaw Gallery Weekend, Wschód Gallery, Warsaw, PL

2022
As Above, So Below, BWA Olsztyn, Olsztyn, PL

2021
Two Sides, Dobro Gallery, Olsztyn, PL
Fields. Karolina Bielawska, Matthew Peers, Wschód Gallery, Warsaw, PL

2019
The Other Room, Krupa Gallery, Wroclaw, PL
Marrow, Miejski Ośrodek Sztuki, Gorzów Wlkp., PL

2018
Slow Down a Moment that Moves too Fast, Realny Obszar Działań, Warsaw, PL

2017
Drift, Warsaw Gallery Weekend, Galeria Wizytująca, Warsaw, PL

2016
Mirage, Spectra Art Space, Warsaw
Later and Slightly Earlier, Art Pavilion, Warsaw

Selected group exhibitions:

2023
Back To School, II High School named after King Jan III Sobieski in Cracow, PL

2022
Controlfriction, MOS, Gorzów Wlkp., PL
Soft, Hidden, Exposed, Double Q Gallery, Hong Kong, CN
Baitball Project 02, Palazzo San Giuseppe, Polignano a Mare, Bari, IT

2019
Metamorphosis, Pola Magnetyczne, Warsaw, PL
Stranger Danger, FOAF, Stone Projects, Prague, CZ
First World Problems: Life Before Death, Rondo Sztuki, Katowice, PL
First World Problems: Life Before Death, Stefan Gierowski Foundation, Warsaw, PL

2018
Articulations. Recently Painted Works, Glassyard Gallery, Budapest, HU
The Draughtsman’s Contract, Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, PL
Communication with Everything that Is, Stefan Gierowski Foundation, Warsaw, PL
Weeping, Dreaming, Fucking, Laughing, Wschód Gallery, Warsaw, PL

2017
The Simultaneity Of Events, CCA in Toruń, PL
Biennale de La Biche, Grand cul de sac marin, Guadeloupe, GP

2016
Among Faces, Państwowa Galeria Sztuki, Sopot, PL
Empty, City Art Gallery of Kalisz, Kalisz, PL

Residencies and awards:

2023
Scholarship of the Downtown District in Warsaw, PL

2021
Finalist of the STRABAG International Award 2021, AT

2020
Scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage – Culture Online, PL

2017
Scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, PL
The Draughtsman’s Contract Residency, Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, PL

2015

Finalist of the Coming Out – Best Degree Pieces Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw 2015, PL
Finalist of the 14th Hestia Artistic Journey Competition, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, PL