Such Was My Dream. Joanna Stańko

Such Was My Dream. Joanna Stańko

Arton Foundation
Foksal 11/4, Warsaw
Exhibition: 11 April–21 May 2026
Opening: 11 April 2026, 7 p.m.

Curator: Marika Kuźmicz
Collaboration: Dariusz Mikołajczak, Adam Parol

Guided tour of the exhibition with the artist and the curator: 10 May 2026, 1:00 p.m.

Joanna Stańko’s paintings are like mnemonic traces of her joyful and enigmatic journeys. The artist undertakes them by drifting into outer space, plunging into the depths of lakes, or wandering through bygone forest glades among dark, towering trees where, beneath the radiance of June moons, plants rooted in ancient belief systems begin to dance. The forms assumed by these memories are intriguing at times: they trigger associations with important cultural texts and images, inviting us to enter a cosmos of symbols to be interpreted – or simply contemplated. Equally fascinating are the colours that envelop us, asking nothing in return – not even our attention. Their intensity is such that they seem to generate attention of their own.

Stańko’s paintings resonate with Indian mythology, Buddhist cosmology, Neolithic representations of the primordial mother, Slavic folklore, and the symbolic language of early European painting (Such Was My Dream). All of them coalesce into forms that embody the artist’s personal experience. A special place is occupied by works addressing various dimensions of the relationship between the micro- and macro-universes – that is, between nature and the perceiving subject (What Am I, Summer Heat). This perceiving entity is gendered. Especially noteworthy among these works is Inhale Exhale: a painting presenting a simplified human profile from whose mouth emerges the form of a female figure. It is breath, identified across many belief systems with the soul. Joanna Stańko’s oeuvre unfolds as interwoven visions of women – both narratives from distant realms and accounts of the subtle, everyday marvels of reality (The Beauty of Flowers Moves Me).

The works featured in the exhibition date predominantly from the 1980s, when Joanna Stańko primarily produced paintings on paper. Alongside other works from the same decade, they constitute a significant yet frequently overlooked chapter in Polish art of the 1980s. The presentation is part of the Arton Foundation’s research and exhibition programme through which the work of women artists who debuted around 1980 is brought to renewed attention.

Joanna Stańko (b. 1950)
She graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1980). She completed her diploma project in Professor Janusz Stanny’s Illustration Studio. In the 1980s, she was active in the artistic community centered around the Dziekanka Studio in Warsaw. She primarily creates paintings and installations, and has also worked with performance art. During the first two decades of her artistic career, figurative motifs dominated her painting. Over time, these motifs were replaced by abstract compositions of simple geometric forms, arranged in repetitive, multicolored patterns. From the mid-1990s, she lived in New York for over twenty years. Her works have been presented in both group and solo exhibitions, including at the Dziekanka Studio (Dancing Blue, Warsaw, 1983; The End and the Beginning, 1986), the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok (1991), BWA in Szczecin (1992), the Promocyjna Gallery (Warsaw, 1992), the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw, 2001), and the Galeria Bielska BWA (Bielsko-Biała, 2008).

Subsidized by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for Promotion of Culture.