The Mazovian Centre for Contemporary Art "Elektrownia" in Radom presents an exhibition by Beata Ewa Białecka – one of Poland's most recognizable and respected contemporary painters. For years, her work has explored issues of spirituality, corporeality, femininity, identity, and the universal dimension of human experience. However, these are areas the artist never treats as closed-ended topics. On the contrary, she uses them to pose questions that lack simple answers.
Białecka's work is deeply rooted in European tradition. The artist draws on Christian iconography, biblical and mythological motifs, art history, and the language of the Old Masters. However, she does not do this to reconstruct the past. Her painting engages in a constant dialogue, sometimes even dispute, with tradition. The familiar is shifted, inverted, and questioned. An old painting becomes the starting point for a story about contemporary humanity—its fears, desires, entanglements, and the need to find one's place.
The exhibition's title— In My Image and Likeness —indirectly references the biblical formula for the creation of man. However, it contains more than just a quote from Genesis. It can be read as a question about who actually has the right to create the image of man. Who decides what he should be like? Who defines femininity, the body, beauty, holiness, sin, desire, and suffering? And finally, is man created "in his image and likeness," or do we continue to create our own image and likeness throughout our lives?
Beata Ewa Białecka (born 1966) – painter, graduate of the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. She received her diploma in 1992 from the studio of Prof. Jerzy Nowosielski.
She creates within the contemporary figurative painting movement. She combines inspiration from ancient art and religious iconography with reflections on contemporary culture and the social roles of women. She utilizes Christian symbols as a tool of subversion, addressing themes of femininity, motherhood, corporeality, and memory, as well as the relationship between the sacred and the profane. She juxtaposes religious motifs with references to popular culture and advertising. Since 2015, embroidery, executed directly on the painting, has been a significant element of the artist's selected works. Entering into dialogue with the tradition of religious embroidery, it becomes an integral part of the painting and expands the means of painterly expression.
A recipient of awards including the Grand Prix of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Pomeranian Artistic Award, she was nominated for the Polityka Passport Award. Her works are in the collections of the National Museum in Gdańsk, the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, and the Museo Colección Roberto Polo – Centre for Modern and Contemporary Art of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo, among others.
