Justyna Koziczak, Mercy

Oil, canvas, 61 x 76 cm, signed on the back

Justyna Koziczak (born 1991 in Wroclaw, Poland) is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland, majoring in Restoration and Reconstruction of Ceramics and Glass. After graduating, Justyna devoted herself to painting and ceramics. She currently lives and creates in London. Her works are compositions whose stylistics may bring to mind dreams and the subconscious. Made in the surrealist trend, the paintings are usually boundless landscapes with temples, gates or peaks towering over a small human figure, but also interiors where only on the surface everything seems ordinary. Usually, the subject matter of these works is the confrontation of man with strange events, monsters or peculiar creatures that embody the fears and difficulties faced by modern man. The artist's style undergoes a change at the beginning of 2020, when, along with experiments on light and color, the author does not focus on narrative and figurativeness, creating works characterized by expressive brushstrokes. The paintings are almost abstract, full of details created with decisive, visible brushstrokes, like scenes from the borderline of java and dream. In these works, a large role is played by light, which, situated in the central part of the painting, brings out from the darkness the shapes of animals and human figures, entangled in Baroque-like decorations. She works mainly in two techniques: traditional oil on canvas and her author's technique of burning through metal and painting on burnt marks using enamel and acrylic paints. In this technique, the author uses elements such as doors from washing machines and refrigerators, electrical boxes that she finds abandoned in 'wild' landfills or junkyards, giving abandoned objects a new role in the creative process.