Justyna Koziczak, At The Gate, 2021.

Justyna Koziczak (b. 1991, Wrocław)
At The Gate, 2021.
oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm

The artist is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland, majoring in Restoration and Reconstruction of Ceramics and Glass. After graduating, Justyna devoted herself to painting and ceramics. She currently lives and creates in London.

Her works are compositions whose stylistics may bring to mind dreams and the subconscious. Made in the surrealist trend, the paintings are usually boundless landscapes with temples, gates or peaks towering over the small human figure, but also interiors where only on the surface everything seems ordinary. Usually, the subject matter of these works is the confrontation of man with strange events, monsters or peculiar creatures that embody the fears and difficulties faced by modern man.

Justyna's style undergoes a change at the beginning of 2020, when, along with experiments on light and color, the author does not focus on narrative and figurativeness, creating works characterized by expressive brushstrokes. The paintings are almost abstract, full of details created with decisive, visible brushstrokes, like scenes from the borderline of java and dream. Light plays a big role in these works, which, situated in the central part of the painting, brings out from the darkness the shapes of animals and human figures, entangled in Baroque-like decorations.

Justyna creates mainly in two techniques: traditional oil on canvas and her own technique of burning through metal and painting on burnt marks using enamel and acrylic paints. In this technique, the author uses elements such as doors from washing machines and refrigerators, electrical boxes that she finds abandoned in 'wild' landfills or junkyards, giving abandoned objects a new role in the creative process.

MAJOR EXHIBITIONS:
2020 London, UK, Old Biscuit Factory, exhibition title: Forces
2019 London, United Kingdom, 2nd Floor Gallery, London International Art Fair
2019 London, United Kingdom, 2nd Floor Gallery, Art is why I wake up in the morning
2019 London, United Kingdom, Royal Opera Arcade Gallery, Exhibition title: On tour
2019 Dubai, United Arab Emirates, World Art Dubai Fair
2019 Florence, Italy, Galleria Merlino, exhibition title: Art and Spiritualism
2019 London, United Kingdom, Espacio Gallery, exhibition title: Roots and rifts
2018 Venice, Italy, Body language, Misericordia Archives, exhibition title: Body language
2018 Lecco, Italy, Arte sul lago, Monastery of Santa Maria di Lavello, exhibition title: Arte sulago
2018 Milan, Italy , 809 Gallery, exhibition title: On tour
2017 London, United Kingdom, Espacio Gallery, exhibition title: Between lines