Agata Borowa (B. 1979), untitled, 2018

acrylic on canvas, 70 x 70 cm, signed on the reverse:
' Agata Borowa | untitled | from the series "Is it painted?" | 2018 | acrylic, canvas, 70 x 70 cm '

Agata Borowa | A significant transformation took place in Agata Borowa's painting as a result of her artistic search and life experiences - a shift from figurative painting to painting on the verge of abstraction and hyperrealism. The artist abandoned human representation, stopped telling stories, and began to stimulate the imagination, creating images subject to fluid and completely changeable interpretation, which is an important part of the artist's relationship with the viewer. The work on display, which belongs to this new trend of Borova's activities, was presented at the exhibition Is it Painted? at the Zachęta Project Place in 2019. In an interview with Magda Kardasz, she stated: "what interests me most is how I can disrupt this space, make the viewer feel a little uneasy, create a kind of trompe l'oeil." She also said of her painting and the project: "I like that moment when the viewer walks up to my painting and checks if it's definitely not a print or a wavy canvas. I care about this impression of illusion - painting so perfectly that the question arises whether it is painted at all and what we are really seeing. I see my work as bringing a painting to life, bringing out its subcutaneous matter, looking for tensions. I'm interested in turning a painting into a sheet, a curtain, a matter bearing the traces of someone's presence. The painting then becomes an object - although in fact it still only imitates that object, it is still a completely flat canvas. Illusionist painting occupies me equally in the form of site-specific projects, as in the case of the exhibition at the Zachęta Project Place. I placed delicate painting interventions directly on the gallery walls, mimicking the folds under the sills or the wavy edges. The walls of MPZ, usually functioning as a background, became the protagonists of my exhibition. This time they were the ones telling their story." Agata Borowa - visual artist, works mainly in painting and applied graphics. Graduate of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (studio of Prof. Jaroslaw Modzelewski) and interior design at the Bialystok University of Technology. Her works have been presented at individual and group exhibitions (including Zachęta Project Place, Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Arsenal Gallery, Białystok; BWA Zielona Góra; Labirynt Gallery, Lublin; m2 Gallery, Warsaw; BWA Bielska Gallery; Platan Gallery, Budapest). Twice a scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2011, 2006). She has participated in residencies and plein-air workshops in Poland and abroad. Since 2001, she has been a co-founder of the Borowe Sisters group. Her works are in esteemed collections in Poland and abroad.