Diptych Wanting created for Double Q Gallery’s first group show, titled Soft, Hidden, Exposed (2022) and presenting a selection of recent works by three young emerging Central and Eastern European female painters.

Soft, Hidden, Exposed, Double Q Gallery, Hong Kong

17.06-16.07.2022

arists: Karolina Bielawska, Kateřina Ondrušková, Monika Žáková

curator: Mónika Zsikla

“Double Q Gallery’s current exhibition presents a selection of recent works by three young emerging Central and Eastern European female painters. The different creative positions of the selected works can be related to each other through the concepts of Soft, Hidden and Exposed and the associations these concepts evoke. The works of all three artists are characterised by the softness that emerges from behind the structures, the hidden references revealed by motifs, and the exposed use of forms and figures integrated within the pictorial spaces.

Polish artist Karolina Bielawska (b. 1986) uses various techniques and painting materials such as bituminous masses, plasterboard, enamels and varnishes in her artworks. Her pieces often push the classical painting boundaries toward installation. Bielawska’s distinctive use of black and blue hues, curved and angular abstract shapes and structures are often based on architectural and local historical prototypes. Some of which include architectural motifs from iconic Polish modernist villas built between the two World Wars -the arches of balconies and staircases, along with many other details. The asphalt and industrial paints she uses in her abstract paintings can also be interpreted as references to the inspiration of the architectural models.”

Text excerpt by Mónika Zsikla, 2022