Jolanta Johnsson, AKT, 2006

63.00 x 44.90 cm - original technique
signed lower right: Jolanta Johnsson 06

Jolanta Johnsson (born November 23, 1955, in Poznań; lives in Warsaw)—painter, Doctor of Fine Arts. Starting in 1984, she studied at the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under the supervision of Professors Halina Chrostowska and Rafał Strent (graphic arts) and Jerzy Tchórzewski (painting). She defended her thesis under the supervision of Rafał Strent in 1990. Since 1988, she has held solo exhibitions: her debut in Nässjö (Sweden), followed by exhibitions in Stockholm (1989), Warsaw (on numerous occasions since 1993, most recently at the van Golik Gallery in 2010), Essen (1994), Poznań (1998), and Kraków (2007). Since 1985, she has also participated many times in group exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including the National Review of Student Printmaking, Kraków 1985, and the National Review of Drawings by Students of Art Colleges, Katowice 1985 (Teachers’ Award), the International Triennial of Polish Printmaking, Kraków 1991, the 1st International Print Biennial, Maastricht 1992, the print exhibition “Man in the Image,” Xylon Museum, and the accompanying workshops in Schweizingen and Reutlingen (Germany) in 1997, the traveling exhibition of Polish and American female artists “The Artist and Her Worldview,” USA 1998, and many other community and charity exhibitions, art fairs, etc. The artist’s primary medium is painting, though she also works in drawing and printmaking. Her generalized landscapes, bordering on abstraction, are characterized by a refined use of color and texture. The artist captures the wealth of impulses and impressions drawn primarily from nature in orderly and harmonious compositions. In her artistic credo, she explains this duality as follows: “When I look at nature with my eyes wide open, I am overwhelmed by the richness and diversity of sensations; I feel helpless. When I gaze at nature through half-closed eyelids, I see more clearly the structure of the fragments I’m looking at; then I have the courage to paint. I paint to capture beauty.” (Catalog: Jolanta Johnsson. Painting Seen Through Half-Closed Eyelids, van Golik Gallery, Warsaw 2010).