Interview with Barbara Palka Winek
I am a painter. I was born in Upper Silesia but live in Krakow. I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 1983.
My painting is characterized by exploration and experimentation with the form and substance of the image. I work in series that complement each other, ultimately creating a full range of my feelings and experiences.
I have shown my paintings in solo and group exhibitions in Krakow and many other venues in Poland and around the world. I have exhibited in Paris, London, Venice, Florence, Monaco, New York, Tokyo, and Shanghai, participating in biennials and art fairs.
Artist Statement:
I think that each painting should make an impression; it cannot 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 through painting. I want to show the transience of a moment enclosed in the plane of color and penetrating matter through light. I try to show transcendence. I have worked in cycles: Screens, Woman - Imago, and Stream of Time.
I do not limit myself to one topic. The latest cycle is "Time Stream." This topic arose from my interest in the cosmos, the multidimensionality of time and space, and parallel worlds. I am interested in where energy is accumulated, isolated from the body.
The topics are contained in the cycles that I mentioned earlier, as well as Obsessions and Archetypes. They are all current; they are not finished, and new paintings are created in each of these cycles.
The woman has always been the dominant topic. A sensual, reflective, 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. Over the years, this subject has undergone numerous transformations: female obsessions, sensuality, women as flowers, Woman - Imago, and archetypes of a woman.
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 and the three-dimensionality that is so intriguing to me. A soft, transparent medium resembling 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).
My paintings combine figurative and abstract painting. I want them to be read that way. I require more effort and commitment from the viewers of my paintings, asking them to pay attention not only to the composition and form, but also to the penetration of the planes of color, brightness, and light. Light is reflected differently from a flat surface than from a thick texture. Additional impressions are created 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 surfaces.
Penetration of textures, colors, and light - as in life - the permeation of feelings: love in sadness, sadness in reflection, reflection in expectation. Expectation of love.
This painting requires a great deal of emotional engagement to sense the transience of the moment.
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 weight that was conveyed to it during the creative act.
Recent Exhibitions:
2016 - MONACO ART FAIR, Monte Carlo
2016 - "RED PASSION," Gallery Des Carmes, Toulouse
2016 - "GRANDI DI ASTRAZIONE," Rossocinabro Gallery, Rome
2016 - ARTEXPO, New York
2016 - SPECTRUM, Miami
2016 - ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST DESIGN SHOW, New York
2017 - THE ESSENTIAL ART EXHIBITION, Art in WOA
2017 - ARTEXPO, New York
2017 - SPECTRUM, Miami
2017 - ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST DESIGN SHOW, New York
2018 - TOKYO INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, Tokyo
2019 - INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION, Grimandi Gallery, New York
2019 - INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, ITSLIQUID GROUP, Venice
2019 - WOMAN'S ESSENCE, The Woman in Contemporary Art, Biennale, Venice
2019 - THE BODY LANGUAGE, ITSLIQUID INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION, Venice
2019 - "SPIKELESS CACTUS" INTERNATIONAL SUMMER EXHIBITIONS, BURN-IN GALLERY, Vienna
2019 - ART IN MONACO YACHT SHOW, Monte Carlo
2019 - ART BASEL, Miami
2022 - SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL FAIR
2022 - MATERIA CONTRA ASTRAL, PALACE OF ART, KRAKOW, individual exhibition
2022 - ART BETWEEN THOUGHTS AND SPONTANEITY, PAKS GALLERY, MUNICH
2023 - COSMIC MEMBRANES, PALACE OF ART, KRAKOW, individual exhibition
2023 - THE ESSENCE OF TIME: DALI, WARHOL AND THE 21ST CENTURY, ARTIFACT, NEW YORK
2025 - ART3F, Chapiteau de Fontvieille, Monaco, Queen Art Studio
2026 - LONDON CONTEMPORARY, 17th Edition
2026 - ROME INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR, 18th Edition
Recent Awards:
2016 - ACADEMY AWARDS - OSCAR NOMINATIONS, BEST ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2016
2016 - INT. ART AWARD "MINERVA - LA DEA DI TUTTE LE ARTI," Lecce
2016 - PREMIO BIENNALE D'ORO PER L'ARTE, ARTEXPO GALLERY, Monte Carlo
2016 - ARTADDICTION, THE 9TH FEMALE ARTISTS' ART ANNUAL, DIPLOMA OF EXCELLENCE
2017 - CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE, ARTKOLA
2017 - 8TH ARTSLANT PRIZE SHOWCASE WINNER
2017 - HONORARY MASTER, WORLD OF ART
2017 - BIENNALE PER LE ARTI VISIVE, OSCAR DELL'ARTE, ARTEXPO GALLERY, Monte Carlo
2019 - WOMAN ART AWARD, WOMAN'S ESSENCE SHOW, CONCOMITANT EVENT OF THE 58TH BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
2021 - LUXEMBOURG ART PRIZE
2022 - INTERNATIONAL PRIZE BARCELONA TROPHY, Barcelona
2022 - VOICES OF TOMORROW International Art Award, Contemporary Art Curator Magazine
Artworks are in the collections of the Diocesan Museum in Katowice, the Southern Nevada Museum of Modern Art in Las Vegas, and the Museum of Silesia in Katowice.
Your practice has evolved through a series of interconnected cycles - Screens, Woman-Imago, Obsessions, Archetypes, and Time Stream - rather than through isolated bodies of work. How do these cycles converse with one another, and what larger artistic narrative emerges from their ongoing development?
My painting series complement each other, creating a whole in terms of form, conceptualization, and technological process—the result of which is usually a thick texture and various transparencies. Each series has its own concept and is based on matter and the psyche—resulting in an astral experience. I want to believe that life has many dimensions—then it is fascinating. I am convinced that astral beings exist in the universe, unseen. These beings are composed of cosmic energy; they are higher forms of existence.
Throughout your career, you have described the figure of the woman not as a portrait of an individual but as an enduring archetype that continually transforms - from flower to imago, from sensual presence to obsessive and symbolic form. What does this universal feminine figure allow you to explore that representation of a specific person would not?
In my paintings, I depict women in various stages of their lives: the citinus – an unbloomed flower; a woman in love – a blossoming flower bearing fruit; a fading flower – falling petals and leaves. Of course, this is all symbolic.
I try to see a woman as a colorful flower. Parenthood is also a very powerful female experience.
Other aspects of my depictions of women include personality development – the cocoon; the Imago – the adult form of the butterfly.
We are part of nature, and I provide examples, symbolic examples of the metamorphosis from earlier stages into the mature individual in the Imago, the butterfly. The aura of color surrounding a woman reveals the richness of her emotions and experiences. The halo of color symbolizes energy. It shows not only material beauty but also the beauty of a woman's inner self, the richness of her psyche.
You often speak about capturing "the transience of a moment" through color, light, and the materiality of paint while simultaneously seeking to express transcendence. How do you reconcile the fleeting nature of lived experience with your desire to evoke something timeless or metaphysical?
The fleetingness of the moment, the here and now. We must strive to absorb the world with all our senses. The beauty of the moment is a fleeting gift and must be valued as a great value in life. Sometimes it can even have the power of transcendence, of detachment from reality. Sometimes, when you lose someone close, you recall those wonderful moments spent together and treasure the memories as a wonderful experience. An experience transcendent, even metaphysical.
Experimentation with painting matter and the development of your own techniques have been central to your practice since graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. How has your technical research shaped your conceptual thinking, and have there been moments when the material itself led you toward ideas you had not anticipated?
The spontaneity of creation, guided by instinct, guides thought and the freedom to choose color, texture, and transparency. During this stage, a dialogue begins, an inner work of intuition and experience. Form or color can inspire a message—a theme—creating a specific composition. Usually, at the beginning of a work, I have an impulse that I follow. This impulse crystallizes the theme, explaining the need for which I begin painting a given
image. Along the way, various associations and surprises arise. This forces specific decisions. This is how a painting is created; this is what creative work is all about. Sometimes the final result wasn't clearly anticipated or defined beforehand. Then comes the moment when we either accept it or reject it. If it's not what I expected, I continue working on the painting until I'm satisfied with the result.
Your search for a transparent, plasma-like medium capable of expressing the penetration of planes and a sense of three-dimensionality seems almost scientific in its persistence. Could you describe this long process of experimentation and explain what achieving this material language has made possible in your recent work?
Finding the right transparent, plasma-like medium allows me to express non-existence, to show the astral in contrast to concrete, physical matter. Combining different media, transparency, semi-transparency, and opaque paints and textures is fascinating because the final effect is often unpredictable. Sometimes the result is a surprising coincidence, a great surprise. Now, after much experience, I can more confidently plan what I expect, and that's a good thing. It's up to me whether I accept the resulting effect. I don't always have the option to change it. When this happens, I continue working and engage in a kind of dialogue with the image until I achieve what I had in mind, what I wanted to achieve. This involves delving into the structure of matter, refining forms and the expressiveness of textures. Spatial matter and active color can emphasize and significantly enhance the message. Developing this transparent medium allowed me to present my personal vision of the cosmos and the Astral hidden within it.
In your Time Stream series, your interest expands from human experience to cosmology, multidimensional time, parallel worlds, and disembodied energy. How has engaging with these ideas changed your understanding of painting as a medium capable of visualizing realities that cannot be directly perceived?
The foundation of all art, including painting, is abstract thinking. This is the starting point. The seed is conceptual thinking. Then, on this basis, we refine our thoughts and crystallize them into a form that has germinated in our thoughts. This is fascinating. We are condemned to human experience – it is our lives. But for me, this is not enough. When we paint, we create illusion. In my case, I create illusion with illusion contained in the painting, wanting to show the astral, which I understand as energy. Since my youth, I have been searching and reading about this aspect of the cosmos. It has inspired me in life and creativity. I believe in the multi-layeredness of worlds and other kinds of existence. I cannot come to terms with our physical materiality, and I believe in other forms of being.
When opening my exhibition at the Palace of Arts in Krakow, titled "Matter Contra Astral," I told myself that the Universe has no beginning or end. This is my opinion, and that is precisely what abstraction is. This is a difficult fact to accept, understand, and come to terms with for many people, including me. But I believe that's how it is.
Across your paintings, there appears to be a productive tension between organic, fluid forms and sharply defined structural planes, which you describe as the "imagination of non-being." What does this dialogue between softness and solidity, presence and absence, reveal about your understanding of existence?
Everything in the universe interpenetrates, creating a symbiosis we don't fully understand. The soft, malleable structure of matter is associated with organic—biological—forms.
Matter can also take on the character of a hard, firm structure. Hence my search for a soft, transparent medium, associated with non-existence or disembodied energy. I believe that existence, in general, is based on the interpenetration of physical and biochemical phenomena, which create various energies that are ubiquitous and affect everything in the cosmos. And that is fascinating.
You have said that a painting should never leave the viewer indifferent and that every work must be driven by a meaningful idea. In an era when contemporary painting often embraces ambiguity or open interpretation, how do you balance the clarity of your artistic intention with the viewer's freedom to construct their own meaning?
I believe that a painting shouldn't leave the viewer indifferent. It should evoke emotion. It must make them stop and consider its message. My paintings are not straightforward. I believe they allow for personal interpretation. It's important that they are inspiring and thought-provoking.
Your work has been presented internationally, from Krakow to New York, London, Venice, Tokyo, and Monte Carlo. Have these different cultural contexts influenced the way audiences respond to recurring themes such as femininity, archetype, and transcendence, and have those encounters affected your own artistic direction?
Above all, I work primarily for myself, out of a need to create and record my thoughts. To express myself. I can't predict how someone will perceive or interpret my painting, given the varying sensitivities and personalities of people. However, it happens that someone perceives my message exactly as I intended when I painted it.
Although each of your cycles remains open and continues to generate new works, your recent paintings suggest an increasing engagement with questions of consciousness, energy, and the invisible dimensions of reality. Looking ahead, where do you feel your artistic inquiry is leading, and what questions do you believe your future work still needs to answer?
I'm in constant dialogue with myself, and this translates into my work. I'd like each of my painting series to remain open to further paintings. I want these series to be created in parallel, complementing each other, creating a coherent whole. We are entering an era of expansive human consciousness, new energies, recognition of dark matter and invisible dimensions. I hope we won't rely solely on our primal instincts – domination, possessiveness, greed, and the stupidity that discredits humanity – because this can lead to self-destruction. We've disgraced ourselves as humanity, it's sad. We've given permission for evil. Everyone should consider what has the greatest value in life, the intangible, the eternal.
I intend to begin a new painting series that will reflect my recent reflections. But this is only a preliminary phase, and I still have much work ahead of me.
„FLORA IUBARIS”, 2012, oil and own technique on canvas, 140 x 200 cm
„FLORODA”, 2015, oil and own technique on canvas, 140 x 100 cm
„MANUSARB”, 2012, oil and own technique on canvas, 140 x 100 cm
„MARIONETTE VIOLET”, 2018, oil and own tech. on canvas, 140 x 100 cm
„PARALEL WORLDS”, 2026, oil and own technique on canvas, 100 x 150 cm
„MEMBRANE TAU”, 2023, oil and own technique on canvas, 140 x 100 cm
„INFINITY (STREAM OF TIME)”, 2023, oil and own tech. on canvas, 140 x 200 cm
„MENTAL SCREEN”,2024 , oli and own technique on canvas, 140 x 200 cm
„SCREENS CCCI”, 2023, oil and own technique on canvas, 100 x 120 cm
„VIBRATION”, 2013, oil and own technique on canvas, 140 x 200 cm
