We cordially invite you to join us and the artist Izabela Chamczyk to celebrate the opening of her solo show Poisonings. The exhibition is hosted by the andel’s Hotel Kraków and Warimpex Finanz- und Beteiligungs AG, as a part of the project ANDEL’S PRESENTS.
The curator of the exhibition Małgorzata Garapich
19.03.2015
Vernisage from 7pm
Performance from 8pm
Poison is a substance which, when it is absorbed by a living organism in a sufficient dose, causes a number of changes in the way it functions – irreversible injury that puts its life in danger and can lead to death. Therefore, ‘poisoning’ is an entire group of symptoms observable in a body exposed to a harmful substance. We can watch such a process on Izabela Chamczyk’s paintings in extreme close-up. Her works resemble film frames cut and examined in a microscope where we can watch painting’s tissue exposed to poison. Swellings, 
rash and eruptions, rough and flaking surfaces are not a shock in such a context. Chamczyk’s paintings look like the painting tissue was cut into pieces which were used as biological preparations subject to grueling experiments in the lab of a ruthless researcher.
The practice is nothing new for the artist. During one of the exhibitions in the Twelve-month War (2013) project, realized at the Centre of Contemporary Art ZNAKI CZASU in Toruń, Poland, Chamczyk created a spectacular series
The Annihilation. The paintings, locked in Plexiglas boxes, were methodically flooded with paint, only to be abandoned at the mercy of time and putrefaction. The works that have been created arise in the space between unfinished process of creation and physical annihilation of the painting as the object. They’re on display at the artist’s studio; a view not for the faint of heart.
Izabela Chamczyk’s work carries a strong emotional charge and the traces of direct use of this charge. It is one of the facets of ruthlessly sincere and spontaneous attitude towards the viewer and herself. That’s why, even when she declares that from now on she does nothing more than to simply paint, in Chamczyk’s case it means moving around extremes. Hence poisoning. Hence transgressing the physical durability of the canvas. Lucio Fontana harmed and pierced the surface of his paintings; Chamczyk puts salt into these wounds, pours streams of thick paint in glaring colors on them. A strong erotically charged energy shows through the surface of the pieces. It is unrestrained, toxic, destructive; all the more impressive is the artist’s skill and maturity that allow her to keep the balance. Her various violations (from the emotional, through carnal, to institutional ones) are the consequence of a strategy. It stems from the belief that, since the strongest impulse that goads her into work is intuition, the ability to trust it is a matter of preserving inner coherence and simple honesty. The honesty that not only the artist herself, but above all the viewer deserves. / Małgorzata Garapich
Izabela Chamczyk (b. 1980) graduated in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, Poland. A painter – performance artist – rebel, she creates processual art. Working in many media she constantly redefines their boundaries; emotions are essential element of her idea of art. One of such projects was the Twelve-month War, realized in 2013. The action explored the issues connected with the place of the artist on the art market and in the circles of cultural institutions, as well as those that searching for space, recognition for her own art, and uncompromising confrontation with the viewer entails.
Chamczyk was twice awarded scholarships of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. She is also a finalist of some of the most prestigious competitions in Poland, including the 10th Geppert Competition in Wroclaw, 6th Triennial of Young Artists in Orońsko, and a Vordemberge – Gildewart competition in MOCAK. She has had numerous solo exhibitions and participated in dozens of group shows, including in the SCC Gallery in Isfahan, Iran, the Entropia Gallery in Wrocław, Poland, the GSW in Opole, the BWA in Zielona Góra, the Centre for Contemporary Art in Toruń, the Festival in Sokołowsko, the ERARTA in Sankt Petersburg. Her works are in many private and public collections in Poland and abroad.
www.izabelachamczyk.com
