Beyond Beauty?

Agata Wolniewicz is a painter from the young generation who shapes her painterly narrative by portraying humans as a phenomenon of the symbiosis between spirit and matter. The emphasis on the spiritual dimension is significant in that it stands in opposition to the contemporary overexploited and behavioral view of humans, depicting them as a part of a deterministic mechanism of nature and a cultural matrix. Her creative profile in the context of philosophical influences is still evolving, but even now one can observe that her thematic way of thinking situates her within the stream of metaphysical personalism, as Renata Rogozińska wrote about in the 1990s. The artistic layer of her works also contrasts with the mediocrity prevalent in many artistic creations, not only in Poland. Despite the contemporary lack of didactics and requirements in terms of artistic and technological fundamentals in art education, the artist's formal curiosity hasn't been dulled. This curiosity is highlighted in many of her creations, showcasing form as pulchrum and claritas. The latter, as an expression of optical truth found only in the works of charismatic creators, reveals light as a life-giving breath, both in the dynamic layer of form, which remains in an analogous relationship to the dynamics of the shape of things, as well as in the layer of techne. Agata Wolniewicz's mimesis of form derived from the human shape is not fully bound by faithful photographic representation. The artist employs rescaling and changes of perspectives, which result in a kind of deformation that animates her unique version of this category. Everything suggests that the artist wants to unveil at least a part of the beauty's mystery. Her technological expertise and meticulous execution favor images as beautiful and captivating entities. Through this fact, the artist aligns herself with the fundamental current of artistic thought, which, out of respect for herself and for others, facilitates the audience's entry into a selfless life-affirming zone of affirmation. This, through its intellectually and emotionally intelligent painterly form, makes it easier to transcend human limitations and seek one's own objectively existing but subjectively experienced spiritual and personal identity.