The Feather Collector

The Feather Collector
solo exhibition by Wioletta Kulewska
curated by Anna Stec
5th March – 16th April 2022
​Wed – Sat | 14:00 – 19:00

Wioletta Kulewska’s solo exhibition at Valletta Contemporary Art features her latest series of large-scale paintings, watercolours, collages, sculptures and installations; a body of work instigated during Kulewska’s residence at The Pedvāle Art Museum in Latvia, 2021.

Kulewska’s paintings oscillate between abstraction and representation. In her practice, she explores threads associated with spirituality and human relations within the natural world. Kulewska is interested in the imagery of prehistoric cultures, analysing its contents, signs and symbols. Her practice is informed by her travels — trips to the Baltic, Caucasus and Eastern Mediterranean territories have resulted in encounters within the ancient world, that have served at points of departure for the distinct narratives found in her extended body of work. Forms of peculiar souvenirs brought back from these expeditions, such as small artefacts or elements of nature (feathers, shells, bones), can be found across her canvases. The image thus becomes a kind of afterimage of the objects, impressions and experiences gathered, with Kulewska’s artistic practice combining elements of research across philosophy, archaeology and anthropology.

The artist’s sojourn in Latvia in August 2021 was an important time in her research on religion, understood as a philosophical reflection on the world. The works created during this time result from her inquiry into ancient Latvian culture and Baltic mythology, in particular their message about living in unison with nature.

The titles of the large-format paintings, such as for the triptych Rose, Blood and Fire, their expressive colours and formal aspects, refer to motifs appearing in Baltic myths and beliefs, as well as local Latvian aesthetics. Both the paintings and the series of objects featured in the Feather Collector exhibition (sculptures/totems or small openwork installations resembling the traditional himmeli) contain varied symbolic meaning. The recurring motif of the feather, as used in art, religion and folklore across distant cultures, represents angels and the afterlife, symbolises purity and freedom, but also serves a purely decorative role as fashion accessory.

However, the literary associations triggered by the paintings are of secondary importance for the artist. Kulewska is primarily interested in issues of a formal nature: the painterly properties of the objects, the composition of the paintings, the interaction of colour and material, which together help the viewer to interpret the work in an intuitive way, by establishing a connection with the extrasensory dimension of art and the array of references hidden in the collective subconscious.

The works within the exhibition at Valletta Contemporary are a fusion of the visual ideas gathered by the artist, shared by many cultures and traditions, which Kulewska subjects to artistic reinterpretation, in order to create a painterly universe of her own. What emerges is a reflection on the significance of nature, myths and rituals in the modern world, on the concept of time, identity and the essence of art, which is the guardian of mythological language, so crucial for the history of culture.

Wioletta Kulewska (1980) is a Polish artist working between Malta, Poland and Great Britain. Working across painting, design and installation, often extending beyond the limitations of canvas and frame. Kulewska’s painting practise is pan-european in its influences, from the Polish fauvism to Levantine religious painting and Russian suprematism. Her figurative painting shifts between intimate representation and abstraction, while her design roots bring emphasis to the pleasure of form, shape and colour in oils. Kulewska work is informed by her travels — trips to the Baltic, Caucasus and Eastern Mediterranean territories have resulted in encounters within the ancient world that have served at points of departure for the distinct narratives found in her extended body of work. Forms of peculiar souvenirs brought from these expeditions, such as small artefacts or elements of nature (feathers, shells, bones) can be found across her canvas. The image thus becomes a kind of afterimage of the objects, impressions and experiences gathered, with Kulewska’s artistic practice combining elements of research across philosophy, archaeology and anthropology.

Wioletta Kulewska is a graduate of Fine Arts from the Opole High School of the Arts, the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland and the London Metropolitan University.

In 2018, she was selected for the Slade educational residency in Contemporary Painting in London. In 2019, she participated in the PADA artist-in-residence programme in Lisbon, Portugal. Since 2018, she has been part of the Turps CC, an artist-led painting mentoring programme in London. In August 2021, she completed the artist-in-residence programme at the Pedvāle Open Air Art Museum and sculpture park in Latvia. Kulewska has been selected for the artist-in residence program at the Skopelos Foundation of the Arts in Greece, and the Hafnarbog Center of Culture and Fine Art in Iceland – both supported by Arts Council Malta 2022. Kulewska currently teaches painting and experimental visual practice at the Malta School of Art, Valletta.

Anna Stec is a History of Art graduate from the University of Wrocław (Poland), where in 2013 she defended her Master’s thesis on the importance of cultural traditions and the interplay of dualities in the work of British artist Anish Kapoor.

Stec has written and edited numerous articles for art magazines, as well as texts for exhibition publications and catalogues. For many years, she was associated with the Art Transparent Foundation, where she was responsible for the coordination of artistic projects, communication and public relations.
She has been a curator for SURVIVAL Art Review, project coordinator and curator at the Mieszkanie Gepperta contemporary art gallery, and PR specialist on the project Stanisław Dróżdż: Text Paths, implemented as a part of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław, 2016.

In 2019, Stec participated in the international curatorial and research seminar OnMediation, University of Barcelona. She has curated numerous exhibitions, in gallery spaces as well as within urban and virtual spaces, including the project entitled The Virtual Canvas, carried out as part of the Bosch Alumni Network.
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She cooperates with the Krupa Gallery, Poland, as a curator involved in programme development, curating art exhibitions as part of the Summer Stage program, and investigating trends within the international contemporary art market. She also supports activities in the fields of communication and content creation.
Her recent curatorial practice focuses on painting, analysing material and metaphysical realms, and looking for links between tradition and the present day.
Stec is currently based in Barcelona, Spain.

Honorary patronage
Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Valletta

Supported by
Adam Mickiewicz Institute