Janina Janicka-Grabowska / CONVENIENCE OF THE BODY / Small Gallery
Janina Janicka-Grabowska
Convenience of the Body
Curator / Roman Lewandowski
Opening / Online on our FB site
12.02.2021 / 6 p.m.
Exhibition
11.02 – 31.03.2021
Small Gallery / Partyzantów 31a / Słupsk
admission free
WIRTUALNE ZWIEDZANIE
In her painting work, the artist focuses on the body and corporeality, which she confronts with the narrative in such domains as medicine, biotechnology and genetics. In this area, Janicka-Grabowska describes the cultural process of taboo, fragmentation and fetishism of the body in the context of repressive systems of representation. Recently, she has also been dealing with the pandemic alienation of the young generation, whose representatives now pursue most of their activities in the virtual world.
In 1976-82 she studied at the Faculty of Medicine of the Medical University of Silesia in Zabrze, and in 1987 she defended her doctorate. For 30 years, she has been the head of the Plastic Surgery Clinic. In the meantime, she worked in several hospitals and completed numerous internships in plastic surgery abroad. She has been painting since childhood. In 2020, she graduated from the Art Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice in the Department of Painting run by Professor Zbigniew Blukacz. In recent years, her works have been presented in the Inne Śląski Gallery in Tarnowskie Góry, in the Wilson Shaft Gallery in Katowice and in the Maciej Shaft in Zabrze.
“In her work, the artist strives to cope with the difficult combination of verism with fresh and living painting tissue which is based on a rich colour palette. The subject matter encapsulates human existence, captured in a snapshot of an extraordinary moment of transformation and the emotions associated with it. The cycle also shows a place full of complex and complicated apparatus surrounding the human body. The artist uses a camera to capture original scenes from offices, rooms and the operating theatre. Then, on their basis, she creates compositions which are maintained in the mood of secrecy known only in the doctor-patient relationship. The resulting paintings testify to both the proficiency in the art and the artistic awareness of the graduate student. Despite the photo-realistic, objective convention, the artist manages to achieve an intimate atmosphere of understatement. Her works reliably capture the course of the ceremonies related to the operations, but by no means do they reveal the true identities of the depicted characters. The faces of both the patients and medical staff are hidden. The guarantee of sterility and anonymity is nowadays a procedural condition that must be met by the medical care in relation to the patient. It is also a sign of progress which, after revealing all internal tissues and recesses, blurs the identity. On the operating table, the human body is physically transformed through local or general anaesthesia. Under these circumstances, the anonymous, objectified body is placed in someone else’s hands. It are covered up for hygienic reasons, but also to focus attention on its surface. For without concentration, no surgery or painting could have been successful. […] the paintings are entitled: “Waiting Room” and “Postoperative Room”. At a time when our increasingly secluded existence and the resulting void become disturbing standards, we also live in fear of how increasing the distance will have an impact on future relationships on a micro and macro scale”. (Miłosz Wnukowski)
Honorary patronage:
