Irmina Staś - Ornaments

The opening of the exhibition is taking place during Warsaw Gallery Weekend on friday, 20.09, 5–9 p.m.
Opening hours on Saturday and Sunday: 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Irmina Staś’s exhibition comprises both paintings and soft objects. The paintings – watercolors on paper and oil on canvas – consist of motifs created from a single fragment, duplicated in a way to resemble a pattern reminiscent of wallpaper or textile. The artist explores the importance of ornamentation – used historically to raise the aesthetic value of architecture and craftwork, while also conveying symbolic content.

This motif continues in her spatial works. By exploring beyond the boundaries of painting, the artist created soft objects using cotton fabrics, thread and thermal insulation material, creating three-dimensional, haptic forms based on arranged ornamental compositions. The textile medium makes her object closer to the viewer.

“The artist’s reflections on color spots and hues are integrated with her attention to ornamental quality, characterized by key features such as sequence, repetition, rhythm, interval and scale. Using a canvas formed from an elongated rectangle, the paintings resemble a frieze, embellished – like an ornament – with replicated body fragments. Breasts, fingers, nails, eyes, and teeth are presented in varying degrees of simplification. Divorced from reality, they obtain an abstract appearance as the forms interlock and merge with each other and create a background composed of a delicate structure that resembles biological tissue.”– excerpt from the text by Agnieszka Maria Wasieczko

These ornamental works composed of seemingly biological, corporal forms carry encrypted messages – ones of love, intimacy, genetic similarities, identity, attraction and the uncertainty of existing in the world and in relationships.

The exhibition is part of the Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2019. www.warsawgalleryweekend.pl

Art project supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage