Am I lucid, am I dreaming?: Solo Show Paola Ciarska

12 May - 12 June 2022
Overview

"I found that the ever shrinking small scale I’ve adopted within my paintings allows me to inhabit that specific section of my parallel universe for longer, which ultimately allows me to get to know it better." - Paola Ciarska

In Ciarska's first solo exhibition in Switzerland, "Am I lucid, am I dreaming?", the artist shows scenes from ordinary everyday life, in ordinary rooms, with ordinary objects, in ordinary poses. At first glance, a completely normal life. However, Ciarska's miniature artworks provide an intimate insight into a world that seems to exist alongside the real one. Her personal impressions and experiences play an important role in the working process and inspire the choice of motifs as well as the colour palette of the works.

 

"The process of painting one room alone - which can take many hours - feels like I've teleported myself there, as all my attention is dedicated solely to visualize and depict it," Ciarska describes her work. This creative dissociation enables the artist to observe banal everyday life in her invented spaces in a new way.

 

In the fictional spaces, not only objects can be seen, but humans also occupy a central place in Ciarska's work. Originally, her own avatar played the roles, a second self and the associated environment created for it. This way of looking at things led the artist to start reflecting and reinterpreting everyday life, the common patterns of life and the banality of our existence, to see beauty and elegance in a different light.

 

"I wished for the viewer to discover a part of themselves within the painting and to shift their focus towards self-reflection."

 

Paola Ciarska (*1993 in Gdańsk, Poland) lives and works in Sicily. Her first avatar was created on her grandmother's veranda through the spontaneous discovery of gouache colours. Since then, a huge parallel world has developed around this figure. Ciarska has already shown her art in many exhibitions, her works have been reviewed in international art magazines and are in renowned collections.

 

Vernissage:
Thursday, 12th of May 2022
6 - 9 pm

Opening Hours:
unitl the 12th of June 2022
Fr: 4 - 8 pm
Sa: 2 - 6 pm
or by appointment

Address:
Galerie SOON
Sihlquai 125 (2. Stock)
8005 Zürich

 

Works