“Any artist should be, above all, true to oneself. To fulfill expectations of others is to negate the art itself. Art should be free. Art should be interwoven with an artist life. When I make art, I want to find a visual language for the things that I am going through and take it along my inner journey—to translate the barrage of emotions and traumas into almost-pictograms. I believe that art should address uncomfortable truths and rip the veils off dirty secrets, pain, and lies. There lies the strength and universal, relatable character of true art.
I make paintings and drawings, I create decorated objects and installations, such as tiled stoves or sets of painted porcelain plates. My works are marked by expressiveness and include fixed cultural images as a reflection of oppression and prejudice in order to reveal their other meanings. I move between different forms of painting and drawing that feature both rococo and expressionist references. My drawings on paper and plates rely on simple means to powerfully articulate problems related to everyday life, relationships with partners and children, as well as more profound spheres of consciousness. Art has always been an essential part of my life, especially in the form of painting and drawing. What I create is also very closely related to my life and my personal story. My art is an attempt to name the reality, to sublime its most important elements, and to find a form for it.”
Bio:
Anna Orbaczewska has received the Cultural Scholarship of the City of Gdańsk many times and the Scholarship of the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship for Creators of Culture. She is also a laureate of the program Kultura Polska na Świecie of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, as well as the Bremenkunst scholarship. In 2019, Anna Orbaczewska received the 2nd prize in the Wrocław Weltchschmerz Drawing Triennale competition. Her works are in the NOMUS collection of the New Museum of Art in Gdańsk, the National Museum in Gdańsk, the National Gallery in Sopot, as well as in many private collections.
Anna Orbaczewska’s work has been exhibited widely, including in the solo shows: Strange Feelings at Gallery lokal 30, Warsaw (2024); As If Nothing Had Happened at Biała Gallery, Lublin (2023); Traps and lures at Łaźnia Center for Contemporary Art, Gdansk (2021/2022); I don’t know how I should tell that at BWA Zielona Góra (2020); and Meeting Point 3 at Kobe Studio Y3, Kobe, Japan (2018).
Anna Orbaczewska has also participated in several group exhibitions, including: Sun Spots at Baltic Art Gallery, Ustka (2024); Witches at Other Society, Warsaw (2023); Rococo Madness at The National Museum, Wroclaw (2023-2024); Tender Debauchery at Gallery lokal 30, Warsaw, (2023); Sleepless in Warsaw at A.I.R Gallery, New York (2022); Take My Eyes at Gallery lokal 30, Warsaw (2022); Collection in Action at Nomus New Art Museum, Gdańsk (2021/2022); The Camel Never Forgets at Gallery lokal 30, Warsaw (2020); and in the 2019 Wrocław Weltchschmerz Drawing Trienniale Exhibition in which she won second prize.
Carried out with the help of Gdansk as a part of the cultural grant:
Art scholarship of the Self-Government of the Pomeranian Voivodeship:
