Justyna Smoleń was born in 1988 in Nowy Sącz. She graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where she studied in the studio of Prof. Leszek Misiak (2008–2013). She completed her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Art at the Pedagogical University in Kraków (2014–2018).
She works in painting and sculpture, and creates objects and installations. She lives and works in Kraków and teaches at her alma mater, the Academy of Fine Arts. Together with Radek Szlęzak, she runs the artist-run space Rooter.
Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at institutions including the Royal Castle in Warsaw, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, the National Museum in Kraków, MODEM Centre for Contemporary Art in Debrecen, the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf, BRAUNSFELDER in Cologne, the Contemporary Museum in Wrocław, Bunkier Sztuki in Kraków, Rondo Sztuki in Katowice, BWA Katowice, BWA Wrocław, Municipal Gallery in Wrocław, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Ustka, BWA SOKÓŁ Contemporary Art Gallery in Nowy Sącz, BWA Sanok Gallery, Szara Kamienica Gallery, Potencja Gallery, and Piana Gallery Foundation in Kraków. She is the recipient of the Grand Prix at the 4th Fresh Blood Review of Young Art in Wrocław (2014) and the Grand Prix at the 10th Józef Szajna International Festival of Events in Tczew (2009). She has received scholarships from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2015) and the City of Kraków (2017).
Her works are included in private collections and in the collections of public institutions, including the Lower Silesian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Wrocław, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, and Bunkier Sztuki Gallery.
Smoleń creates paintings, spatial objects, sculptures, and porcelain collages.Her areas of creative interest include natural phenomena, the exploration of human relationships with nature, and mythology. In her artistic practice, she is particularly interested in the concept of the fragment as a field of creative inspiration.
Her paintings often draw on the language of minimalist abstraction, using the material properties of paint to shape the character of the work. The starting point is a fragment of natural space that organically expands in multiple directions. These works seek to visually articulate both emptiness and an infinite multiplicity of visions within a single object. Smoleń draws attention to the shifting interpretations of artworks and to the viewer’s individual perception. Her creative method is also based on the deconstruction of found objects, through which she produces new, hybrid artistic forms while reconfiguring their original meanings.
