The less work, the better effect. Liliana Lewicka

The less work, the better effect.
Liliana Lewicka

Opening: 28.06.2024, 7 p.m.
Exhibition: 28.06–19.07.2024
Foksal 11/4, Warsaw

Curator: Adam Parol
Cooperation: Dariusz Mikołajczak
Graphic design: Aleksandra Otulska
Translation: Agnieszka Probola

Organized in cooperation with the Center for Culture and Arts (OKIS) in Wrocław
Co-financed from the budget Local Government of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship

Who was Liliana Lewicka? A painter? A ceramicist? A performer? A pioneer of dematerialization? Founder of one of the first happening groups in Poland? Perhaps she was a combination of these roles or none at all. Looking for traces of Lewicka’s life, one may be disappointed. Her work is absent from institutional collections, the artist's archive has most likely been lost, destroyed or never existed. Lewicka's legacy persists largely through anecdotes, making her one of the most enigmatic artists in Polish art history.

The exhibition is the result of over a year of extensive archival and library research as well as numerous inquiries to various institutions (museums, galleries, community centers, schools, libraries and archives) and individuals who may have met her . The exhibition is an attempt to create a monograph of her from a combination of small fragments – archival materials, memories, quotes, reproductions, conversations, and both personal and collective imaginations, which make up this one possible reconstruction of the artist's life and work.

The exhibition is part of the master's diploma carried out at the Faculty of Artistic Research and Curatorial Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw supervised by Marika Kuźmicz, PhD, and Kuba Maria Mazurkiewicz, PhD. Featured materials are sourced i.a. from the collections of the Archive and Art Documentation Center of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the curator's private archive.