Karolina Lizurej: Some stories to tell
8. 7 – 4. 9. 2021
curator: Lenka Sýkorová
photo: Karolina Lizurej, Markéta Bendová
video: Dominik Žižka
Accompanying program:
Wednesday, 28th July 2021, 2- 4 pm workshop for children, 4- 5 pm curator-guided tour with an author.
Storytelling accompanies us throughout our entire life. It builds bridges between people. Storytelling helps us to find a common thread that allows us to understand not only different generations but also our own identity. By immersing ourselves in stories, we can find wisdom, advice and anchorage in some time and in some place. Polish artist Karolina Lizurej is fascinated and inspired by stories. She has long been interested in the history of the Warsaw Uprising in German-occupied Warsaw, which was both tragic and heroic. It was the time of great Polish history as well as of small personal life stories. The everyday story of human life full of joy and drama is also shown in the current exhibition Some Stories to Tell, which was created for the Altán Klamovka Gallery in response to its surroundings and the history of the place. In this exhibition, Karolina Lizurej tells stories through embroidered drawings that were inspired by the microworld around the small gallery in Klamovka Park near the center of Prague. The textile installation symbolizes the transience and evanescence of memory that keeps emerging and disappearing.
She uses simple embroidered drawings on a white canvas to create new meanings of motifs from old black and white photographs. She crosses the line between fabric and drawing. She uses a thread instead of a pencil. Her technique of large-format embroidery is very similar to black and white drawings, where black threads on a white background provide a testimony of the present with regard to the traditions embodied in folk art. For smaller formats, she also uses colors and color threads.
Karolina Lizurej is a young Polish artist. She studied in the Studio of prof. Andrzej Rysiński and the Studio of Artistic Fabrics of prof. Dorota Grynczel of the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She won awards in the Student Section 2012 and the Professional Section 2018 of the International Triennial of the V4 countries - Textile Art of Today. Her artwork focuses on artistic fabrics and the technique of large-format embroidery and reflects both tradition and the contemporary world. Her intermedia artwork also includes painting, drawing, graphics and scenography (e.g. she collaborated on the film Gareth Jones directed by Agnieszka Holland, 2019).
Lenka Sýkorová