Artist Spotlight - Barbara Palka Winek — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow at the Faculty of Painting.
Diploma in 1983. My painting is characterized by searching and experimenting with form and painting matter of the picture. It is important to paint technology improved and enriched by own experience, and even lead to the development of its own technology.
I works in cycles that complement each other and, as a result, create a full scale of her feelings and experiences. I live and work in Krakow, Poland.

SYMULAKR, 2020, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x100cm

Major exhibitions:

I exhibited several times in Paris, London and New York, in Manhattan (Agora Gallery), Ward-Nasse Gallery, Brodway Gallery, NY Art Fair). She took part in the Florence Biennale, London Biennale, and Tokyo Biennale.

ARCHETYPE OF WOMAN VI, 2012, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x100cm

Recent exhibitions:

2015 - Collezionista Gallery, Rome, London Art Biennale, London, Tokyo International Art Fair, Marco Polo International Prize Art, Venice,
ARTEXPO, New York, Premio Delle Arti Donato Bramante, Rome, DESA Gallery, Krakow, Bohema – New Art, Warsaw
WOMAN A FLOWER - individual exhibition RAVEN Gallery, Krakow

LOVE, 2025, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x80cm

2016 - PALMA D'ORO PER L'ARTE, Biennale, Montecarlo, MONACO ART FAIR, Montecarlo, "RED PASSION", Gallery Des Carmes, Toulouse
"GRANDI DI ASTRAZIONE", Rossocinabro Gallery, Rome
2017 - THE ESSENTIAL ART EXHIBITION, Art in WOA
2018 - TOKYO INTERNATIONAL ARTFAIR, Tokyo

MANUSARB, 2012, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x100cm

2019 - INTERNATIONALE EXPOSITION, Grimandi Gallery, New York, INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, ITSLIQUID GROUP, Venice, WOMAN'S ESSENCE,
The Woman In The Contemporary Art, Biennale, Venice, THE BODY LANGUAGE, ITSLIQUID INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION, Venice, "SPIKELESS CACTUS",
INTERNATIONAL SUMMER EXHIBITIONS, BURN-IN GALLERY, Vienna, ART IN MONACO YACHT SHOW, Montecarlo.

MATERIA CONTRA ASTRAL, 2021, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x200cm

2021 - POWER OF CREATIVITY ART PRISE, ARTIST OF THE FUTURE AWARD, NEW RA CONTEMPORARY ART STATION, RIVER OF DREAMS, PAINTING OF THE YEAR 2021
2022 - MATERIA CONTRA ASTRAL, indiwidual exhibition, Palace of Fine Arts, Krakow
2023 - COSMIC MEMBRANES ,indiwidual exhibition, Palace of Fine Arts, Krakow

MATERIA CONTRA ASTRAL III, 2022, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x200cm

Major awards:

Artis Laudabilis - The Europa Authentica Cultural Organization, Budapest, 2009, Oscar della Cultura - Florence, 2014, Marco Polo International
Prize - Venice, 2015, Roma Imperiale International Prize - Rome, 2015, Sandro Botticelli Prize - Florence, 2015, Primo Delle Arti
"Donato Bramante" - Rome, 2015, Laudato Magister Honoriscause Della Biennale Internazionale D'Arte "Barocco Slaention - Accademia Italoa In Arte Nel Mondo, Brindisi, 2020.

MELANCHOLICO, 2017, oil and own technique on canvas, 150x100cm

Artist Statement

I think that each painting should make an impression, it can not be indifferent to the viewer.
The idea of the painting is important, so that it is not just another canvas painted without sense and without purpose. There must be an idea which we illustrate by painting.
I want to show the transience of a moment closed in the plane of color and penetrating the matter through light. I try to show transcendence. I was done in cycles - Screens, Woman - Imago, Stream of time.

MENTAL IMAGO, 2011, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x200cm

I do not limit myself to one topic. The last cycle that has been created recently is the "Time stream". This topic arose from my interest in the Kosmos, the multidimensionality of time and space, parallel worlds.
I am interested in where energy is accumulated isolated from the body.
The topics are closed in cycles that I mentioned earlier, and Obsessions and Archetypes.
They are all current, they are not finished and new paintings are created in each of these cycles.

METAMORPHOSEA, 2012, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x100cm

The woman was always the dominant topic. A sensual, reflexive or obsessive woman. A woman - a flower or a woman's metamorphosis. Not a specific person but a woman. This topic appeared at the very beginning of my artistic work and has remained very important to me today. Over the years, this subject has undergone numerous transformations - female obsessions, sensuality, women flowers, women imago, archetypes of a woman.

OBSESSION, 2009, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x100cm

I paint with oil and acrylic paints. For a long time I was looking for a transparent medium that would allow me to show the penetration of planes, the three dimensionality that is so intriguing to me. A soft, transparent medium resembling a plasma.
After many years of work, it seems that I have achieved the goal - the fluidity and softness of biological forms combined with a hard, massively marked plane - the imagination of non-being (nonentity).

PROFOIMAGO, 2009, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x100cm

My paintings combine figurative and abstract painting.
I want it to be read like that. I require more effort and commitment from the viewer of my paintings - to pay attention not only to the composition, form, penetration of the planes of color, brightness and light.
Light is reflected differently from a flat surface and different from a thick texture.
Additional impressions are caused by transparent textures. I want my paintings to have a sensual and emotional effect, not necessarily because of the content but more because of the diversity of their surface.

RED IMAGO, 2000, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x100cm

Penetration of textures, colors and light - as in life - the permeation of feelings: love in sadness, sadness in reflection, reflection in expectation. Expectation for love.
This painting requires a lot of emotional engagement, to sense the transience of the moment.
My paintings combine figurative and abstract painting.
Light is reflected differently from a flat surface and different from a thick texture.

SCREENS SILHOUETTES, 2012, oil and own technique on canvas, 140x100cm

Painting is for me a link between the real world and the transcendent.
Apart from artistic values, art should contain a mystery.
In each painting, one can read the emotional load that was conveyed to him in the creative act.

www.palkawinek.pl