Martyna Borowiecka, Gerda in the Land of Ice, 2023

oil, canvas, 170 x 130 cm signed, dated and described on the reverse: MARTYNA BOROWIECKA/"GERDA W KRAINIE LODU"/170 x130 cm/oil on canvas 2023

exhibited: Martyna Borowiecka. Over-sensitive, Center for Contemporary Art "Signs of the Times" in Torun, July-September 2024 reproduced in the exhibition catalog: p. 10.
"The walls of the palace were made of huge snowdrifts in which the winds had drilled doors and windows. More than a hundred halls were in the edifice, and the largest was several miles long. They were illuminated by a beautiful aurora, casting red and yellow glows on the white snow, so that the great chambers were empty, quiet, bright and frosty. "*
"In the world created by Borowiecka, the tightly defined standard according to which we should be pretty, nice, reserved, unassuming, undemanding, not too ambitious, not too confident, not too independent, etc., ceases to be an overriding value. Women here do not have to conform to social expectations of their corporeality, they are not ashamed of their beauty and unpretentiousness, they allow themselves to be withdrawn or helpless, they are proud and confident, they deviate from the ideal image of the mother, they do not tame their desires and appetites, they are brave, they abandon their fragility and delicacy.... They do not allow themselves to be formatted as the authors of literary or cinematic stories, who set them in the roles of the heroines of their stories, wanted. They deviate from the perceptions we have had of them so far. Sometimes they are disturbing and cause discomfort. However, does a woman's goal have to be to take care of anyone's well-being? "**.

Specific characters become the protagonists of my paintings. Remembered from fairy tales read in childhood, books studied in mature life or movies I have watched. From the depths of memory, like pop-culture afterimages, specific They were hatched. Selected, like archetypes represent unique values, states, memories of past events. Time, which outlined the features of each of them in turn. They are the result of hypersensitive stories glued together from small elements that are components of collages.
Gerda is the closest and earliest of my beloved characters. Fascinated by the set design and overall aesthetics of the Soviet film adaptation of the fairy tale, to this day I consider frosted gingerbread as my most favorite sweet treat. (They were the ones the Queen's kidnapped Kaj ate.) She persisted in her goal of finding her friend. Fearless She. In this fairy tale, which is special to my heart, as many as two characters stand out clearly, attention is stolen not only by Gerda, but also by the frosty ruler, the Snow Queen. The all-powerful She, ruling over the icy land. The woman abducts the boy, she wants him to become part of her world, to belong to her, being on top, and thus probably alone. The brave Gerda rides to the rescue. Like a voiceless tiny fairy named Tinkerbell, she does not give way, but faithfully accompanies. She does not forget, and tributes above all else, loyal to the end.
Martyna Borowiecka (1989, Kielce) graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. As of 2019, she holds a doctoral degree. As part of the "Tool Cycle: New visualizations for activated bodies" series, she realized the performance "Patrons. "Deep shadows fall lazily, enveloping everything around me" ("Patronesses. Deep shadows fall lazily, enveloping everything around me") at Foco Gallery in Lisbon and Goyki 3 Art Incubator in Sopot (2021). Participant in the Painting Triennial in Kaunas, Lithuania (2024) and the 18th SURVIVAL Art Review "Wasteland" (2020). Resident of the Pienkow Art Residency (2018). In 2017 she served as co-teacher at the International Summer Academy in Salzburg. Winner of many awards and scholarships, among others: the Jan Matejko Prize, the Creative Scholarship of the City of Krakow, the scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. She is a two-time winner of the Grand Prix in the competition "Przedwiośnie" (2014), (2019) and VII Triennale with Still Life (2015), as well as the Equal Prize awarded in the 1st Lublin Spring Biennale (2021). Until 2020, she organized art events at the Telkom Telos building in Krakow. She works in Krakow and Wieliczka.
Individual exhibitions:
"Over-sensitive" ZNAKI CZASU Contemporary Art Center, Toruń (2024),
"Every day I drown" Wanda Gallery, Warsaw (2023),
"A little drop of poison" at Shefter Gallery, Krakow (2022),
"Pearl Earring, Tear Drop (stuffy sweet)," Pilipczuk Gallery, Copenhagen (2020).

Group exhibitions:
"Girls + Eggs," Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Arts, Virginia (2024).
The Art Gallery of the College of Staten Island, New York (2022)
"Letters to R. Vol 2," Pressure Tower, Kalisz (2024)
"Navel Dream," City Gallery, Wroclaw (2024)
"Pharmacist. Balsamic Garden," City Museum, Tychy (2022)
"Exquisite Corpse Now," SNEHTA Residency, Athens (2021)
"Into these hustling, flaming and stunning days, I am transported by thought", Stefan Gierowski Foundation, Warsaw (2021)
"Salon of Magical Renewal," Widna Gallery, Krakow (2021)
"Celebrity", Szara Kamienica Gallery, Kraków (2020)
"SENSUALIZATION," Piktogram gallery, Warsaw (2020)
"And if darkness is not only blackness, what else can it be?". Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art (2020)
Post-competition exhibitions of Bielska Autumn (2021, 2019)
"Paint Means Blood," Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2019)
"Realism. Two Views," BWA Bydgoszcz (2018)


*fragment of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" translated by Cecilia Niewiadomska.
**fragment of text by Natalia Cieslak from the catalog Nadczułe.