Monika Marchewka

Monika Marchewka (b.1988) is a Polish artist living and working in Gdynia, Poland. In 2013 she obtained her degree in painting at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. After graduation, Monika started working as an animator in the world's first fully painted film 'Loving Vincent'  and later 'The Peasants' (BreakThru films production company). Since leaving BreakThru films, she has been painting full-time and exhibiting world-wide. 
 

Coming from a film production background, the Monika Marchewka creates painting as if each piece were a component of a movie. “ I choose frames and topics in such a way that if I wanted to make a film based on them, they are a ready-made storyboard.”

 

During her film production years, Marchewka worked on fully painted films; ‘Loving Vincent’ or ‘The Peasants’ , which lay grounds for her storytelling and painterly language. Her paintings are figurative but surreal. They are dreamy and magical yet somewhat haunted.

 

The artist brilliantly creates a balance between the ‘dark’ side and ‘light side’. Rendering clouds, fog, and water as her signature elements, Marchewka’s paintings set the premises for her female characters. They inhabit the dreamy setting as a part of their journey towards something. That something can be something tangible, superior or spiritual. It suggests that there are many journeys one might embark on, and it’s absolutely up to our individual selves to explore or reach that.

 

Marchewka’s characters in her paintings are often accompanied by another female character or something peculiarly invisible. That something is meant to overlook, help or divert from the character’s target or final destination. The artist melodramatically leaves the rest of the interpretation to the viewer. ”I wanted to leave that up for discussion. Let everyone find their journey and their purpose in the paintings.”

 

Exhibitions 
 

2024- ”Sweet Memories”, group show, Monti8, Italy

2023- ”Sweet Potion”, group show, Artistellar Gallery, London

2023- Artsy FOUNDATIONS, online fair , artsy

2023- "Inaugural Salon Group Exhibition", Salon21, New York
2023 - "High Maintanance" Group show, Tchotchke Gallery, New York
2022- "In The Dawn", solo show, Artistellar Gallery, London
2022-"The Return of the Goddess", Elektra Gallery, Warsaw
2022- "Full Moon", Water Tower Gallery, Konin
2022- "Bad Dreams", Two Changes, Sopot
2021- "Calm down, no one is watching" MCK, Bdygoszcz
2018- "Ways of combating storms and hail", Galeria NAmiejscu, Gdańsk
2017- "A little old way, all over again", Galeria Sztuka Wyboru, Gdańsk.
2016- “Written off”, Two Changes Gallery, Sopot.
2015- "The moment before. A moment after”, POPin Studio, Sopot.
2015- "Unrest", Żak Gallery, Gdańsk
2013 Young Polish Art, POSK, London