Justyna Smoleń is an artist living and working in Krakow, Poland. She is primarily a painter, but also makes sculptures, objects and installations. She was born in 1988 and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 2013. She has taken part in many solo and group exhibitions in both her native country and abroad.
Her works can be found in many private and national collections, including: collection of the Zachęta Lower Silesian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts Wroclaw (Widnokręgi, 2016) , collection of the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (Totem, 2021).
Smoleń creates paintings, spatial objects, sculptures and porcelain collages. Her area of creative interests are the phenomena of nature, the study of human relations with nature and mythology. In her artistic work, she is interested in the concept of a fragment as a field of creative inspiration. Often her paintings are based on the language of minimalist abstraction, which uses the material properties of paint to build the character of the work, the starting point of which is a fragment of natural space that organically grows in many directions. These images try to visually present the void as well as the endless multitude of visions in one object. Smoleń draws attention to the variability of the interpretation of the work of art and the individual perception of the work by the viewer. Her creative method is also based on the deconstruction of found objects, on the basis of which she creates new, hybrid artistic qualities, deconstructing their meanings.
Solo exhibition:
2020 – Read the forms, solo exhibition, Grey House Gallery, Krakow, Poland
2016 – SOON_30, Widnokręgi, solo exhibition, Spectra Art Space, Warsaw, Poland
2016 – Widnokręgi, BWA Sokół Gallery, Nowy Sacz, Poland
2015 – Lack, BWA Sanok Gallery, Sanok, Poland
2015 – Zamęt, Socato Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland
2014 – The sea, Sandhofer Gallery, Salzbourg, Austria
2012 – Unus/Una/Unum, Foundation for the Promotion of Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
Duo/trio exhibition:
2023 – Wyrd Road, Radek Szlęzak/ Justyna Smoleń, Rooter, Gallery, Krakow
2022 – Connections, with Edyta Kowalewska and Zuzanna Piekoszewska / Justyna Smoleń, Nanazenit Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2022 – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, with Paweł Olszewski, Piana Gallery Foundation, Krakow, Poland
2021 – Without lashes, with Nina Paszkowski and Olga Holzschuh, Cracow Art Week KRAKERS, Dietla 7, Krakow, Poland
2020 – with Małgorzata Markiewicz / Marcin Janusz, Kadenowka Residence House Rabka Zdrój, Poland
2019 – Motus, with Olga Ząbroń and Krystyna Misiak, Pawilon Wyspiańskiego, Krakow, Poland
Group exhibition:
2023 – CALLART 2 The Overview Effect, Wrocław Contemporary Museum
2023 – Powrót do ceramiki, MOCAK Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Krakowie
2023 – Treibstoff, MODULGALERIE, Nuremberg
2022 – A river once flowed there, Piana Gallery Foundation, Krakow, Poland
2022 – INNY/ OBCY / TEN SAM, Rondo Sztuki Gallery, Katowice, Poland
2022 – Restless Souls, Open Eyes Art Festival 2022, Pałac Oginskich i Potulickich, Krakow, Poland
2022 – Young Art Biennale Fisheye 10, Centre for Creative Activitites, Ustka Poland
2022 – IS IT REAL? The power of imagination, OFF Festival, Rondo Sztuki Gallery, Katowice, Poland
2022 – Interior, Katowice BWA Gallery, Poland
2021 – Super Heros, KunstRaum, Weissenohe, Germany
2021 – Enlivening, Pilipczuk Gallery, Copenhagen, Danemark
2020 – Utopia Spaces of Closure, Transporter Kultury, online exhibition, on-line
2019 – Flogiston, ASP Painting Gallery, Krakow, Poland
2019 – Starting point, Biala Gallery, Centrum, NCK, Krakow, Poland
2019 – Changing views, Halle WERFT 77, Dusseldorf, Germany
2019 – Weltschmerz, BWA Wroclaw, Poland
2019 – Nature in art, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, Poland
2018 – Deal, Potencja Gallery, WGW, Warsaw, Poland
2018 – UTOPIA. No-place, High5, Krakow, Poland
2017 – Leszek Misiak and students, NCK, Krakow, Poland
2017 – NOPROBLEM, Potencja Gallery, Krakow, Poland
2017 – XY- XY – Újgenerációs lengyel-magyar festészet, MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debreczyn, Hungary
2017 – Triangel, Polish Institute in Dusseldorf, SITTart Galerie Dusseldorf, Kulturforum Alte Post Neuss, Germany
2016 – Morze, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, Poland
2016 – Polish start. Art Capital 2016, Ferenczy Múzeumi Centrum, Szentendre, Hungary
2016 – PMS Świeża Krew, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Poland
2016 – CUBE, Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland
2016 – Co słychać w Nowym Sączu?, BWA Sokół Gallery, Nowy Sącz, Poland
2015 – 2th International Art Competition CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE, City Art Gallery, Częstochowa, Poland
2015 – SPOJRZENIA. 01.O zanikaniu wspomnień, Kunst Raum Weissenohe, Oberfranken, Germany
2014 – REST-ART-WORK, Wawrzyńca 19, Krakow, Poland
2014 – 5th Marian Michalik’s Competition for the Painting of Young Painters, Painting Triennial, City Art Gallery in Czestochowa, Poland
2014 – Young Polish Art, Museu Nogueira da Silva, Braga, Spain
2014 – Art and Technology. PI SYMPOSIUM, Theatre du Crochetan Monthey, Switzerland
2013 – Promotion, 23 Polish Young Art Review, Legnica, Poland
2013 – Imaginary Landscapes 2, Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA, Taipei
2013 – The 41st Painting Biennale Bielska Jesień 2013, BWA Bielsko-Biala, Poland
2013 – BETRETEN VERBOTEN, Culture Transporter Foundation, Quelle, Nuremberg, Germany
2013 – Still Nature, Soho Factory, Warsaw, Poland
2013 – New Painting/New View, UA Gallery, Poznan; BWA, Gorzow Wielkopolski, Poland
2012 – Naturystki, Contemporary Art Center Solvay, Krakow, Poland
2012 – New Painting/New View, UA Gallery, Poznan, Poland
Awards:
2015 – honorary mention, 2th International Art Competition, Contemporary Landscape, Częstochowa
2014 – Grand Prix, IV Art Contest Świeża Krew, Socato Gallery, Wroclaw
2009 – Grand Prix, Zdarzenia, X -Józef Szajna International Festival, Tczew
Scholarship:
2017 – Artistic Scholarship of Krakow City
2015 – Scholarship of The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
2012 – Henry T. Doren’s art scholarship, Krakow
