Paulina Olowska

Paulina Olowska was born in 1976 in Gdansk, Poland. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk in 1995, she furthered her education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Royal Academy in The Hague, the Center for Visual Arts and Communication in Lisbon, and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. She currently lives and works between Berlin and Warsaw.

As a painter, performer, photographer, and director, Olowska had her first solo exhibition at the Sebra Gallery in Gdansk in 2000, followed by a vibrant exhibition career across Poland, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Estonia, and the United States. Her formal research, which began with painting, draws on Modernism and Russian Constructivism to develop a global language that bridges past and future and fosters understanding between old and new.

In her work, she considers elements related to industry, leisure, and socialist symbolism, drawing from the visual and cultural landscape of Eastern Europe. Her pieces often focus on forgotten figures and minor stories, citing popular aesthetics through fashion photography, political propaganda posters, album covers, graffiti, magazines, and advertisements.

Since 2010, her work has emphasized young women wearing colorful sweaters, posing almost like models for a fashion magazine. These images, which evoke distinctly American consumerism, were nearly impossible to find, much like the garments themselves in stores. The sweaters, rooted in Western culture, were secretly reproduced and reinterpreted by Polish women in their own homes. This type of adaptation and recreation of Western styles was first described in 1954 by Polish writer Leopold Tyrmand, who coined the term “Applied Fantastic,” which also names the series from which the works in the Iannaccone collection, Chess Player 1 and Crochet Coat, are drawn.

The paintings vibrate with life, and the models depicted manage to enhance, destroy, and transform what they wear. Through their poise and beauty, a simple object like a wool sweater transforms into something wonderful and sensual. There is no photo retouching; the image of the woman is pure and simple.