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Almine Rech

Ewa Juszkiewicz 'Locks with Leaves and Swelling Buds' Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

Apr 20 — Sep 1, 2024 | Venice

Tuesday — Sunday, from 10:00 to 18:00

 

 

Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso is pleased to present the solo exhibition Ewa Juszkiewicz: Locks with Leaves and Swelling Buds curated by Guillermo Solana.

For more than a decade, Juszkiewicz has created paintings based on portraits of women by European artists, especially those from the 18th and 19th centuries, while examining “where the boundaries of the portrait were and what effects she could achieve by means of deformation and distortion”. 1

In 2010, Juszkiewicz painted a series of masked characters in which the markedly feminine clothing contrasted with the violence suggested by the mask. The pro-faciality mask hid one face while proposing another, symbolic or fantastic, animal or supernatural. The anti-faciality mask, meanwhile, hides the first face and prevents the appearance of a second one, blocking the reproduction of faciality.

By 2013-2014, the dominance of the anti-faciality mask was consolidated in Juszkiewicz's work. Any object capable of replacing a head or any material capable of enveloping it would be used: hypertrophied mushrooms, a bouquet of flowers, a tangle of branches and leaves, a combed or braided head of hair, a bandage made of luxurious fabrics.... When these objects and materials appear in the place of the face, the viewer looks for signs of an eye, nose, mouth, for signs of a facial outline; sometimes, but for an instant, they may think they have found them, but their reading is immediately frustrated. The anti-faciality mask actively resists our desire to decipher a face in it.

In her versions of old portraits, Juszkiewicz cultivates a traditional pictorial craft, painting in layers, with many glazes, following the brushstrokes of the original work. But her technical virtuosity would be useless were it not at the service of a transgressive project. By covering the face of historical portraits, Juszkiewicz challenges the very essence of this genre: she destroys the portrait as such. Her paintings are no longer portraits of anyone in particular, but representations of the condition of women under patriarchy. And, as she points out, at the heart of the intervened portrait she drives the stake of another genre: the still life, to which belong the fabrics, flowers, fruits, and other objects the artist uses as masks, subverting the traditional hierarchy of genres and the culture/nature dichotomy.
 

— Guillermo Solana, Artistic Director at Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

This exhibition is organized by FABA (Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso) and supported by Almine Rech. 

1.“Painter Ewa Juszkiewicz Wants to Shatter Conservative Ideas About Beauty” Interview by Claire Selvin, ArtNews, November 25, 2020

Press release

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Selected artworks

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Untitled (After Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller), 2019

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Untitled (After Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller), 2019

    Oil on canvas

    80 x 60 cm

    31 1/2 x 23 1/2 in

    Private Collection

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Lady with a Pearl (after François Gérard), 2024

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Lady with a Pearl (after François Gérard), 2024

    Oil on canvas

    80 x 65 cm

    31 1/2 x 25 1/2 in

  • Swelling Buds, 2021

    Swelling Buds, 2021

    Oil on canvas

    200 x 160 cm
    78 3/4 x 63 in

    Collection Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Bird of paradise, 2023

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Bird of paradise, 2023

    Oil on canvas

    200 x 160 cm

    78 1/2 x 63 in

    Collection the ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Portrait in Venetian Red (after Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun), 2024

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Portrait in Venetian Red (after Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun), 2024

    Oil on canvas

    190 x 140 cm

    75 x 55 in

    Private Collection

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Untitled (after François Gérard), 2023

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Untitled (after François Gérard), 2023

    Oil on canvas

    100 x 80 cm

    39 1/2 x 31 1/2 in

    Private collection 

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      The Summer (after Jean Baptiste François Désoria), 2023

    Ewa Juszkiewicz The Summer (after Jean Baptiste François Désoria), 2023

    Oil on canvas

    160 x 120 cm (unframed)

    63 x 47 1/4 in (unframed)

    Private Collection

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Untitled (After Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun), 2020

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Untitled (After Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun), 2020

    Oil on canvas

    160 x 120 cm

    63 x 47 in

    Private Collection

     

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Portrait of a lady (after Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg), 2020

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Portrait of a lady (after Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg), 2020

    Oil on canvas

    100 x 80 cm

    39 3/8 x 31 1/2 in

    Private Collection

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Untitled (after Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun), 2020

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Untitled (after Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun), 2020

    Oil on canvas

    130 x 100 cm

    51 1/8 x 39 3/8 in

    Private Collection

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Red Dress, 2024

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Red Dress, 2024

    Oil on canvas

    100 x 80 cm

    39 1/2 x 31 1/2 in

    Private Collection

     

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Monstera, 2024

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Monstera, 2024

    Oil on canvas

    100 x 80 cm

    39 1/2 x 31 1/2 in

    Private Collection

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz,                                      Portrait in Carmine, 2024

    Ewa Juszkiewicz Portrait in Carmine, 2024

    Oil on canvas

    100 x 80 cm

    39 1/2 x 31 1/2 in

     Private Collection

Videos

  • Ewa Juszkiewicz: Locks with Leaves and Swelling Buds