American Dream

The exhibition of paintings by Wanda Marzec, whose artistic career came to an unexpected end in the late 1980s, is the first attempt at a monographic presentation of her oeuvre. The story of this Kraków-born painter's emigration and her efforts to establish herself on the New York art scene lasted barely two decades. The exhibition brings together works from the 1970s and 1980s, tracing the evolution of her painting—from vividly coloured, decorative compositions to monochromatic canvases rendered in subtle shades of grey.

Surreal dreamlike visions, alongside the anxiety and suffering experienced by people lost in the vast metropolis, form the core of Marzec's New York universe. The joie de vivre and optimism that permeate her early works gradually give way to more sombre reflections on the impossibility of fulfilling the "American Dream."

"Painting is a journey into the half-unknown," Marzec wrote in her unpublished notes, "although the result is not always what I expect. It always brings me the joy of creating."

Curator: Agnieszka Jankowska-Marzec