Paulina Pawlik
MLitt Fine Art Practice- print media
Glasgow School of Art
Graduates: 2022
Specialisms: Fine Art / Installation/Sculpture / Sustainable Design
My location: Glasgow, United Kingdom
Paulina Pawlik
First Name: Paulina
Last Name: Pawlik
University / College: Glasgow School of Art
Course / Program: MLitt Fine Art Practice- print media
Graduates: 2022
Specialisms: Fine Art / Installation/Sculpture / Sustainable Design
My Location: Glasgow, United Kingdom
About
Paulina Pawlik lives and works in Glasgow. Pawlik makes oil paintings, charcoal drawings, monoprints in screenprinting techniques, pulp painting and handmade paper installations, creating portraits and imaginary landscapes by combining land, sky and sea elements with her memories, feelings and imagination. Her works centre on the basic theme of the human body and its need for nurturing and protection, primarily related to human emotional and spiritual needs. She focuses not only on creating an art object but re-creates emotions. She is tapping into events from her childhood and motherhood as a source of these emotions. Her works explore various themes, including the cycle of life and death, transience, change, transformation, sublime, spirituality, and creativity.Recent exhibitions: 'Eye to Paper', Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh (2023), 'Life Aquatic' on board Maid of Loch, Balloch (2023), 'Connected' Degree Show, Stow Building, GSA (2023), 'Strewn Taboos' Barnes Garage Space, GSA (2022).For the exhibition 'Eye to Paper,' Pawlik created charcoal portraits where she transferred her emotions and memories into the conscious act of drawing. The project 'The Life Aquatic' inspired by the water landscape, let her develop the theme of well-being, the value of different lifestyles, hidden depths and the unconscious, life flow. On her degree show 'Connected', she displayed various collages and assemblages made from handmade paper and jute rope. She destroyed her prints and drawings and created new work from them to manifest the idea of the cyclical passing of both material and spiritual things. Pawlik has been honing her skills in painting and printmaking for the past several years studying at the Glasgow School of Art (2019- 2022) and the Polish Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow (2011-2015). She took part in workshops in large-scale woodblock and etching at Glasgow Print Studio in 2018. Before developing her artistic skills, she studied philosophy, which taught her to look at reality from different perspectives and analyse our perceptions and beliefs. For her, painting is also a way of learning about reality, a form of questioning. She is focused on the constant investigation, abstraction and development from objective source studies.
The installation 'Magdalenki' is part of my degree project 'Connected'. The main material I worked on was a paper I made from my old drawings and prints. I made it in various sizes, textures, weights and colours, leaving traces from previous works on them. I was focused on transformation and transience, stories about rebirth, fragility, and infinity. To create a new work, I was destroying the old one. It was a moment in my life when I lost my father. I didn't feel I could develop my previous ideas. I didn't know what direction I should take. Therefore, going back to resources, sorting and looking through old drawings and prints was, at the same time, a way to dig into the sources of creativity that I wanted to find in myself. I built this installation from handmade paper, rope net, and nails. I loosely attached the paper sheets to the wall, so the paper casts a shadow. Some of the pieces were cut in organic forms inspired by elements of nature. Some had the shape of mould and deckle on which they were made. All of it was connected to a jute net hanging above them, creating a ceiling. Hanging sheets of paper at different heights symbolises constant movement. The whiteness of paper meant pure thought or a potential place for creation. Ropes and a net suspended as a ceiling connected and bound everything. It is a work that can be expanded or minimized, or re-constructed. It is an installation in the process of its creation. The dancing figures were inspired by the performance of my sister and my friends at the Van Gogh Alive exhibition in Edinburgh in June 2022. Dance is a pure expression of body, vitality, and passion. It can be used as a metaphor for life. Their performance was a spontaneous response to the place, music, light, moment and atmosphere. I have included an echo of my girls' dance in this work because my work and their dance were unforced, unfinished, and impermanent. They came to my degree show and danced again.
Competitions
