Manfred Bator

(…)

Taking into account the period in which these events are placed, it should be stressed this is an absolutely remarkable output. It is also worth noting that we are talking about serious events in such prestigious exhibition facilities as presentations in the Wroclaw City Museum. Among XY ankamierzejewska's numerous achievements, we should recall the grant awarded by the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Local Government to the artist in 2012, or her participation in collective exhibitions, such as XXI Polish Painting in the Warsaw Zacheta gallery, Made in Poland exhibition presented in places including the Roten Rathaus in Berlin and Krakauer Haus und Turn in Nuremberg, as well as the participation in exhibitions accompanying the most prestigious Polish competitions focused on painting, such as the Bielska Jesien (Bielsko Autumn) or the Festiwal Polskiej Sztuki Wspolczesnej (Festival of Polish Contemporary Art) in Szczecin.

The most important fact related to XY ankamierzejewska's such intense activity in terms of exhibitions, defining, in a way, all her artistic attitude, is that almost every presentation is composed exclusively of "premiere" pieces which are this is crucial completely autonomous compared to the Painter's earlier output, in spite of clear continuation in her visual thinking.(…)

Kama Wrobel

Painting Expansion

(XY) “ is a well-known and respected artist. This may also be because the attitude she has been presenting many years is uncompromising and authentic, which is noticeable both in her paintings and in direct contact. We are not going to find here neither a coherent narrative nor a single-track artistic programme; instead, we receive works stylistically related, constituting an expression of what was its author's fascination at the time. XY's work is not uniform in the technical context either: the painter uses various media - acrylic, spray, tape - inspired, to a large extent, by urban space, street culture and the set of symbols associated with it. Therefore, what links and blends the paintings presented by her are: rebellious and, in a way, critical attitude, openness to formal experiment, lively, contrasting, sometimes even fluorescent colour, expressive aesthetics and directness of painting gesture. (…)

XY ankamierzejewska says about herself she is a child sloshing about in paints, a creator trusting her own intuition, an artist unafraid of experiments. Fascination with the unknown and unavailable often leads her to innovative and interesting formal solutions, aimed, in consequence, at purely artistic development, which constantly provokes the artist to fathom new, still unexplored areas. (…)

Constantly provokes us and makes us think. She deliberately creates new, aggressive cycles, as if distracting our attention form works formerly created, just to return to abandoned questions after a while and and surprise us with them again. (…)

It also needs to be mentioned that the work of the Wroclaw painter is not easy to classify: on the one hand, she moves in the territory of pop art; on the other hand, in the space of garish, underground off. She reaches for street art, art of the city, mass culture and symbolism of the everyday. She creates a private set of iconography and dresses it in her specific type of visual expression. Dynamism, deformation, thick contour, synthetism, deconstruction, and elements of assemblage prevail in it. Colour is important as well: as gaudy as the shapes of pictured compositional elements. Dynamism is intensified through the use of heaped diagonals, play with the frame, background and foreground, and through free approach to pictorial composition. The drawing, linear to a large extent, is executed on a completely flat background, most frequently obtained as a result of experiments with various supports. This is therefore a struggling kind of painting. Not directly perhaps, but in a manner strong enough to make the recipient feel this involvement. And this is not a critical voice aimed directly at social, economic and religious issues, so popular nowadays. On the contrary – XY talks mainly about her own emotions - sometimes provoked by external events, in other cases by internal dilemmas. Through her painting, she also fights for the artist's freedom and creative liberty, which depend more and more on the buyer's taste and opinion. She protests against the increasing intrusion of the art market in the artist's behaviour and the final result of her work, which was pungently expressed been in such cycles as: No Because No, You Want Flowers? Here Are Flowers!, Vanishing Images and The Surname.

Diese Ausstellung unterscheidet sich stark von den bisherigen Zyklen der Malerin. Die Künstlerin zeigt normalerweise einen aktuellen, hermetisch geschlossenen Zyklus, in dem sie sich verschiedenen konzeptuellen Aufgaben stellt, die auf der Leinwand gelöst werden.

Die Bilder, die in Wiesbaden gezeigt werden, wurden für die Räumlichkeiten der Galerie Pokusa unter dem Motto des „Triumphs der Malerei“ bzw. des Spiels mit der Malerei ausgesucht. In der heutigen Zeit werden immer öfter in Kunstgalerien, während der Biennalen und Kunstmessen vorwiegend Installationen oder Videokunst präsentiert. Malerei wird als etwas „Traditionelles“ betrachtet, als Gegenteil zur „modernen“ Kunst, die mit verschiedenen technischen Erfindungen jongliert. Und plötzlich stellt man fest, dass die Malerei so viel zu bieten hat! Sie kann erfrischend sein, spontan und witzig, einfach echt!

Anka Mierzejewskas neue Bilder werden fett gemalt, mit vibrierenden Farben, starken Linien und mit viel Schwung kompromisslos malerisch umgesetzt. Wir zeigen Ihnen starke, sehr unterschiedliche Bilder der jungen dynamischen Breslauer Malerin, die an vielen polnischen Kunstorten für (malerischen) Wirbel sorgt.

Ewa Hartmann, Kuratorin der zweiten Ausstellung dieses Jahres im Rahmen des 25-jährigen Jubiläums der Städtepartnerschaft Wroclaw – Wiesbaden.

Marveling at the exuberance of art

By Elie Aliman

Within a few short paragraphs, it is not an easy task to do an in depth review this work merits.

At first glance, the painting of Anka Mierzejewska arrives with an ecstatic embrace as vivid colors converge, contrast, and carry us into a realm of orderly chaos.

It’s hard to escape the energetic power of these paintings - flaunting the struggles of the psyche, unraveling a collective need of expression. It is not a clash but a confident, abundant, and passionate flow, a painting process of intuitive expression. Free from conventional description, it glimmers with unexpected revelations.

In this series of work, Anka reflects on art and life, and across a selection of different media displays her unique ability to tune in and fully immerse herself in the manifestations of a depthless psyche.

In this grouping of paintings, Anka’s vision is an optimistic one, conveying the free flow dynamics of a range of psychic output. Emphasizing the similarity between visual and literary art, her brisk lines are minimal laconic strokes, interlacing like a haiku’s short poem form. They are an endless narrative that enraptures the viewer with an abandonment that permeates the senses.

Here in this series of paintings are a polysemy of visible manifestations of the masculine forces, the animus,(1) the Yang, channeled through a festive mind’s eye of the feminine anima, the Ying; the rugged strokes take jovial lyrical forms that call to mind the themes of ‘eternal recurrence’ hinted at in Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being or the ‘strange lightness of being" in Tolstoy. These visuals blend Eastern and Western incorporeality, in the flow of the brush and the palette’s colors.

To illustrate in musical terms, each canvas in its theme has the dynamics of a staccato, and yet, the whole series combined presents a legato connectivity.

Unlike other contemporary artists, who are either overly cerebral or gimmicky, Anka’s work has an unfettered openness that muses on the perpetual struggle life's demands make. This invites a myriad of interpretations, a stream of consciousness that has many apparitions, signifying revelation to any who might be open to discern.

Anka has an artist’s tacit awareness of the unseen. She lets the viewer in with an intimate glance in the direction of the unfoldment of the unknown, thus allowing the viewer to unfold their own unknowns. The supraconscious mind is a fascinating territory.

This art does not require interpretation, but should be felt spontaneously and instinctively.

(1) https://carljungdepthpsychologysite.blog/2020/03/06/carl-jung-and-the-anima-and-animus/ -

Carl-Jung-And-The-Anima-And-Animus

Brandt Junceau

sculptor and writer

Anka’s work shares virtues of her person. It is uniformly serious, constructive, earnestly

concerned both with the human condition, and the nature and worth of the individual.

And it happens to be visually splendid. (…)

Her work takes no aspect of the human condition for granted. As personal and as

directly concerned with the physical contingency and the interior life of the individual, it

takes place in a broader social scene, where individuals collide one to one and find

inevitable friction with society. (…)

I find her balance of introspection and social engagement admirable and all the more

valuable for bringing a European perspective to issues that are handled differently, and

quite frankly, with less attention to real freedom of thought and visual action here. We

American artist and citizens alike need more of that un-cliched, un-partisan cross-

fertilisation. Cultural exchange with artists like Anka helps us out of our “box.” Anka is

an absolutely precious addition to the dialog on this side of the Atlantic.

© 2025 XY ANKA MIERZEJEWSKA