Filip Berendt, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Katya Shadkovska : Gauguin's Syndrome

Gauguin's Syndrome

FILIP BERENDT, EWA JUSZKIEWICZ, KATYA SHADKOVSKA
curated by: Agnieszka Rayzacher

The exhibition The Gauguin Syndrome features three artists: Filip Berendt, Ewa Juszkiewicz and Katya Shadkovska. In fact, it comprises three individual shows that share an anthropological theme. All works have been created with this exhibition in mind.

Filip Berendt is a photographer and sculptor, who works with objects. Each of his works results from the process of creating an object that is later portrayed in photographs. Monomyth is a cycle of works that combine artistic photography with abstract painting. The photographed objects are spatial collages built on a wall in Berendt's studio. His works portray the monomyth, which means the myth of a hero, an anthropological figure created by the American mythologist Joseph Campbell.

Ewa Juszkiewicz is active in the field of painting, drawing, sculpture and collage. The artist has recently begun to use small-scale archival photographs of lost works of art as the foundation of her own paintings. A very important motif in her work is the mask. The masquerade unleashed by Juszkiewicz serves to challenge the status and function of the old portrait genre and to build a new image on its “ruins”, or rather a new collection of images.

Katya Shadkovska works mainly as a video artist, who is also active as a curator and cultural animator. Dividing her time between Poland and Russia, Shadkovska collaborates with Russian independent artistic circles. The film created for the exhibition The Gauguin Syndrome is the fruit of the artist's activity in Russia. Telling a story of a young transsexual man, Shadkovska addresses the stereotypes related to masculinity and the transformations they are currently undergoing.