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JOANNA TURKIEWICZ

 

Joanna Turkiewicz was born in Wrocław, Poland. Daughter of the glass artist Witold Turkiewicz and designer Danuta Widajewicz-Turkiewicz. To continue her family tradition she studied art.
In 1983 graduated with honours from Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań with a diploma in Faculty of Design and Interior Design.
Currently she paints and works as designer and interior designer.
She has presented her works at numerous individual and collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad, e.g.:
Institute of Industrial Design – Warszawa, B.W.A – Gallery of Contemporary Art.: Kraków, Kalisz, Legnica, Głogów, Jelenia Góra, Ostrów Wielkopolski, Kłodzko;
Contemporary Art. Galery – Jelenia Góra, Desa Gallery – Wrocław, Francuska – Warszawa, Flik Gallery – Warszawa; Sarp – Poznań
Germany- Frankfurt/Main, Stadt.Galerie Am Rathaus – Kronach, Switzerland, Kreuzlingen , U.S.A. Europa Club Galery – Nowy Jork
February 2023 ZPAP Opole – „Drawing on the knee”, individual exhibition of drawings
April 2023 Galeria BB Wrocław – „There’s Something in the Air” individual exhibition of drawings
2023 „Impresje kłodzkie” – ZPAP exhibition: Lewin, Wałbrzych, Wrocław
2024 Centrum na Przedmieściu – individual exhibition of drawings and paintings
2025 Sokołowsko Fundacja Sztuki Współczesnej In situ – post-plein-air exhibition ZPAP
2025 Pałac Hatzfeldów – individual exhibition, presentation of ZPAP members
2026 (16.05-12.07) Muzeum Karkonoskie, Dom Hauptmannów, Szklarska Poręba, individual exhibition of drawings and paintings.

„There’s something in the air”

 

Exhibition: 23.03.2023–7.05.2023
Finisagge: 6.05.2023

It started with drawing „on the knee”. „On the knee” means ad hoc. That is, somewhere along the way, not in the studio…
Joanna Turkiewicz is an insanely busy person, and lately she has been travelling more than usual. When travelling – as you know – there are stops. You have to wait, at the airport, at the bus stop, in a cafe, on the train. And Joanna does not like to sit still. With a pencil – an extension of her hand – she began to record time with the wandering of lines across the pages of her sketchbook. Unknowingly, improvising, the hand chalked up what its eyes, ears, head dictated. Ephemeral sensations, shreds of the surrounding world, living and inanimate matter combined with associations emerging from memory, the non-concrete outlines of something that hovered in the air for a moment, blurred – a streak, a line, a shadow.

She has a skilled hand for drawing, as a designer of objects and residential interiors that make life easier, more efficient and enjoyable. She is also adept at making instant, irreversible decisions as a great, long-time watercolourist. Leading the line, its dialogue with the plane, shapes, shading, all this happens on a piece of paper spontaneously, one at a time, parallel to the duration. A kind of notation from being here and now. Frames of reality, only that not recorded by photography but by the impulse of the imagination.

Although the inspiration for these drawings sometimes comes from chance, consciousness takes up the game with it, and the final composition is guarded by the rules of harmony, and there is no chaos. Also, for good reason, accents of colour and additional flashes of expression are sometimes introduced. Because expression – this indifference of Joanna to the world, to reality, to the obvious and the unobvious – is the most important motif of her work. So, too, drawing “on the knee”.

Zofia Gebhard
translated by Robin Gil

„A river sometimes changes its mind”

 

An exhibition of works on paper by Joanna Turkiewicz-Dąbrowska – Centrum na Przedmieściu, Przedmieście Oławskie, ul. Prądzyńskiego 39A, Wrocław. 8 – 30 November 2024.

Joanna works mainly in watercolour, a medium commonly associated with something more subtle and elusive. However, can something be both insubstantial and robust? Yes, and Joanna’s paintings are proof of this. We can admire the artist’s masterly command of this very difficult medium, in which one cannot afford to make any mistakes. Once the pigment is applied, the work cannot be painted over. One can never be certain of the final result.

We are wandering through these delicate, illuminated, yet angular worlds, encountering people in relationships or crossing footbridges hanging over chasms.
In these largely abstract spaces, we can make out vague silhouettes of human figures or an outline of an undulating mountain landscape.

Do these visions arise from the artist’s imagination or dreams, or do they stem from her real life experiences? Irrespective of this, it is satisfying to get immersed in them, for they sparkle with many colours and tell us something about ourselves. These symbolic images do get under our skin making their way into our subconscious.

Dorota Jones-Olszanka

Maybe that is because Joanna is able to paint just anything, it is so difficult to define her artistic personality. But surely the most characteristic feature of this personality is elegance. It is a little old-fashioned concept, embracing a fondness for perfection, beautiful form, attention to detail and finish. It is also an insightful reflection on the fact, that every time the purpose of picture, interior design, and even a concept – helped to find a unique feature, the nature of the composition.
If for Joanna painting is like writing poetry – finding the synthesis of your own vision of the world or the mood, then interior design is organizing, on one hand creating unity with the multiplicity of elements, on the other hand – the extraction of this point, the soul of this place, which spreads charm and the emanation of its interiority on the viewer. This is evocation of cooperation, coexistence, mutual uniqueness. You have to be a really seasoned artist to consciously juggle your skills and use them generously as much as able to give them up. Because Joanna knows well that unsatisfied mind is better than overindulgence and restraint than talkativeness. Discretion, understatement, stopping at the door – this is also a feature of her art. And it also is an expression of elegance.

Zofia Gebhard

Joanna paints wind and air

Mirosława Poślednik