Agata Słowak - descendant of witches

In her work, Agata Słowak addresses themes related to eroticism, cultural gender, and feminism. You can find here references to scenes of childbirth and abortion, which the artist compares to a witches' sabbath. These motifs speak to the role of ritual and magic as alternative forms of knowledge transmission and the creation of female communities, and they took shape both formally and thematically as part of Słowak's diploma, which she obtained in 2019 and was honored with the main prize in the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts' Coming Out competition.

"The occult motif serves to tell a joyful story that one doesn't necessarily have to meet high expectations and should live in harmony with oneself. Occultism, to me, is a vast collection of aesthetically fantastic motifs, but I also respect it for laying the foundations for the development of many scientific disciplines that use a similar methodology based on experiments and observation." 

Agata Słowak

With remarkable courage, Słowak dismantles stereotypes regarding masochistic female preferences and directly addresses anti-abortion policies and their drastic consequences for women. At the same time, she combines seriousness and absurdity, distancing painting as a political tool. The artist allows us to look at corporeality, biopolitics, discourse surrounding reproductive rights, and the social construction of norms and gender roles with a certain wink at their real gravity. Her distinctive and recognizable painting style, developed during her studies, set her apart from her peers, leading to rapid artistic career development and recognition among curators and art critics. As a young artist, she already had the opportunity to exhibit in major art institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Foksal Gallery Foundation, and the Zachęta National Gallery of Art.

Through depictions of mutilated bodies, Słowak tells stories of difficult human relationships within society, in relationships, and, especially, of a lack of tenderness toward women. The roots of her nonconformist artistic attitude can be traced back to her upbringing in a conservative family that fostered a patriarchal atmosphere. Similar experiences and feelings were brought about by her time studying at an institution based on analogous values, where women made up only 22% of the teaching staff. Her courage to address important social issues, combined with personal experiences guided by desires, dreams, impulses, fantasies, fears, and hopes, earned her the main award of the Polityka's Passports in 2022. This recognition also acknowledges the consistent grounding of Słowak's work in classical modern painting. The artist, by transferring compositional arrangements of forms from the works of past masters to her canvases, juggles known motifs and even questions them. Here, one can also notice biblical connotations intertwined with erotic themes, expanding the field of interpretation and associations. 

"I employ magical themes interwoven with feminist and cultural gender-related motifs to draw attention to the fact that the problems faced by women and individuals marginalized due to their non-conventional gender orientation have their roots in times when belief in magic was more common. It is not a problem invented today but something that has afflicted humanity for a very long time." 

- Agata Słowak