18.06.2021 – 03.06.2021
vernissage: 17.06.2021, 18:00
ARTEMIS – GALERIA SZTUKI
ul. Poselska 15
31-002 Kraków
In the Via Lucis cycle, a key role is played by light. It represents an essential condition for any kind of vision; without it, art would not exist in the form that we know. Here, however, light has been used specially and consciously. Thanks to it, the artist has created potential drawings in her works, compositions that change dependent on the type of lighting, along with other parameters such as its color, intensity and angle. Light and shadow, thus, form drawings with the aid of concave-convex forms. Drawings that, in certain conditions, lose focus until they completely disappear. Thus, the composition’s readiness to reveal itself, this optic play with the drawing’s appearance and disappearance, exists thanks to the lighting, and is addressed to the sense of sight.
However, this is not the end of the story, for in the Via Lucis cycle, a role equally important as that of sight is played by the sense of touch. Indeed, these compositions do not at all disappear when the lights go out – they just exist in a different manner. For these works are so exceptional that one can move one’s hand over them; with one’s fingertips, one can touch their edges, one can move over the concavities and convexities of their form, over the rough paper, over the sharp, arched or meandering edges. In this manner, one can also feel the printed fields with their surfaces smoother than the other planes of the graphic work.
In this manner, Łakoma reminds us of the tactile aspect of art. Fundamentally, it is present in every print – indeed, in every visual art work – but we often pass it over and treat it lightly. In the Via Lucis cycle, hapticity regains its significance.
Agnieszka Łakoma
A visual artist, printmaker, painter and author of spatial objects, Agnieszka Łakoma holds degrees from the Faculty of Printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (2006) and in art history from the Jagiellonian University (2005), and defended a Doctor of Fine Arts degree in the Faculty of Printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (2012). She holds the post of City Artist (since 2013) and Head of the Printmaking Section of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers in Kraków (since 2019).
The winner of scholarships from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2005–2006 and 2021, the artist has won the following awards: prizes in Hommage à Nicolas Schőffer category in Budapest (2013) and Grand Prix in Print of the Month competitions organized by the Association of Polish Artists and Designers in Kraków (2008, 2013, 2016).
