Monika Szwed. Now

The exhibition NOW brings together Monika Szwed's most recent works  – a selection of carefully composed pastel drawings based on a series of photographs taken during the Second World War. The photographs depict ordinary events from everday life, whether it be a domestic scene or an image of people at work. Szwed's drawings, on the other hand, show that even something familiar and mundane can, at the same time, appear strange and unusual.

Juxtaposition, the uncanny and transcendence have always played a key role in the artist's practice. Szwed combines several realities on one picture plane by blending found, familiar imagery. The works shown at her previous exhibitions at the Zderzak Gallery, namely "Botany for the Advanced", 2008, "Frozen Charlie", 2007, "Innocent Homes", 2006 and "23 Koans", 2005, demonstrated the artist's ability to combine the world of dreams with reality in a curious and poetic manner.

The drawings exhibited at this, Szwed's 5th exhibition at the Zderzak Gallery differ in form to her previous works. Instead of using a bright colour palette, she presents monochrome works which draw on the indexicality of the photograph, as well as the photographic aesthetic. These qualities allow the artist to highlight the idea that both tragic and joyful events take place simultaneously. This is what Szwed would describe as „the paradox of the everyday”.

Monika Szwed: born 1978, Poznan. Studied at the Poznan Academy of Fine Art (1998 - 2003). Graduated with a diploma in Artistic Education under the supervision of Prof. Alicja Kepinska, as well as from the Multimedia Department under the direction of Prof. Piotr Kurka. Her works can be found in private collections in Poland, Germany, the USA and Great Britain. Artist lives and works in Poznan.

Opening 26 January 2012, 6pm; to 3 March 2012.